Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny
by Cloud Link Zero
Summary: The three future children did not leave Ylisse unnoticed. Four more are sent after them, causing a chain reaction that could possibly send the war between Nohr and Hoshido in a direction nobody could see coming. Beware, Silent Dragon, for Fate will not let you take hold of it so easily as before. Long Fic, branching routes, original chapters, more personality inside. First try!
1. Chapter 1: Journey to the West!

_A/N: I do not own Fire Emblem or any of it's characters. That belongs to Nintendo, Intelligent Systems and everyone else that makes it._

Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny

Prologue: Journey to the West

It all started with a disappearance, three to be exact.

In the Halidom of Ylisse, comradery was the cornerstone to success and the key to many of the victories that it claimed over the last several years of battles that their special operations unit, the Shepherds, fought in. Though it was led by an enigmatic tactician that knew nothing of himself, much less other worldly views, he managed to pull out miracles that none could lay claim to match, much less overcome. Though the real credit could be found when the troops came across a more…mystical kind of ally.

For a dark future had laid in front of them. Working in the shadows, forces lead by the spirit of the Fell Dragon, Grima tried to set everything needed to lay waste to the entire world. If not for the timely intervention of the Divine Dragon, Naga then history may have truly repeated itself.

The only resistance left had been led by the future Queen, then Princess, Lucina. She fought alongside her allies, but soon found themselves separated across time and space when set into the past. It had taken some time, but once they found each other again they formed an even more cohesive unit than the Shepherds could be at times.

With their help, the Fell Dragon was slain, though at a heavy price. The brave tactician, Robin, sacrificed himself when he learned that Grima was bound by him through a brand on his hand that connected their souls together. By destroying his future self, who had been consumed by the Fell Dragon's influence, he created a paradox. The end result was that he had erased himself completely, denying Grima a body to reside in for the rest of eternity. Yet in return, he left behind a wife and son that mourned for him, even with Naga's encouragement that his bond with his allies would help his spirit find its way back into their realm.

It had taken a very long year, but Robin had been found and ironically enough, he was found in the exact same spot that he had been found the first time by the current Exalt, Chrom and his sister Lissa. With the cycle now complete, everyone thought that they could finally move on with their lives; only to discover one day that three of their own had been missing for over a week now with no explanation.

"How odd. It isn't like them to report for duty after such a large period of time. Especially considering…" Chrom muttered to himself. Robin and he poured over several maps in Ylisse's castle 'war room', which was really just Robin's room but in a darker, more somber atmosphere.

"Well according to one of the castle maids, she heard them shouting at somebody beyond the castle walls rather late about a fortnight ago or so. Maybe someone was asking for help?" Robin suggested, ever the pragmatic one to think of every angle possible.

"Then why wouldn't that person come straight into the throne room and ask for assistance? We are known the world over for coming to the aid of any, stranger or ally, so long as we are needed." Chrom rebutted. Ylisse's policy of nurture over conquest made the nation quite renowned for their generosity in times of crisis.

"Hmm…well, either this stranger came from a really small village or…" Robin began to say before he gazes over a certain spot on the map. "Or he didn't come from our time."

"Our time? You mean…" Chrom was cut off when Robin tapped his finger on a tiny island south of Ylisse's mainland.

"The Outrealms. It's certainly a possibility with everything that's happened there." He remembered how before they went to defeat Grima, the Shepherds and their descendants went into a ravaged future where Lucina and her company chose to place their hopes on completing the Awakening; A ritual set to prove her exalt blood to the Dragon Goddess, Naga and unleash the full power of her dragon slaying blade, Falchion. Without their help, her desperate last gambit would have failed, but in doing so everyone was encouraged in knowing that Grima was NOT invincible, infallible or immortal.

"It's still odd and a little too convenient. However, we can't spare troops to scour the lands for three teenagers, no matter how close their ties are to us." Chrom said.

"Well, that's true. We can't spare the standing army, but who says we need an army?" Robin asked in return.

"Oh? Well what do you have in mind then?"

A deep grin could be seen on the Tactician's face. "Send their friends after them, of course. Not ALL of them, mind you, but just a few. I already have them setting up for the journey. Gaius' contacts reported seeing three people matching our wayward sheep's descriptions, hitching a ride to the Valmese continent."

A smile slowly began to fill the Exalt's face. "Good, it's a small, mobile task force then. Who are you sending?"

At this, a sigh came out of Robin's lips. "Well…Morgan for one, he's been wanting to prove himself for a while now and he's more than earned his chance with this having a leadership position. Cynthia as well, since they're all part of the 'Justice Cabal' and being an excellent aerial scout. Noire is next since she's a rather excellent tracker barring her…condition getting out of control. Finally, I sent Brady since having a healer in reserve is just good common sense."

This time a small chuckle came from Chrom. "Not wanting to send the baby dragon out of his nest so soon?" he asked.

He stopped though when he saw Robin shivering in fear.

"Err….Robin, are you ok?" Placing his hand on his friend's shoulder, he could feel it vibrating from how much the normally cool and collected Grandmaster was shaking in place.

"I fear for my own health just as much as his. Tiki will kill me if anything happens to him so soon after our family was reunited." Robin managed to utter with a grimace sliding firmly into place on his lips.

The previous chuckle that came from Chrom now turned into a full blown laugh. "Ah, yes. Olivia is honestly doing the same to me, which is why I came to you. I trust my son to at least keep the flirting to a minimum but happy wife, happy life I say. Though I do have to wonder, why not the others?"

A larger sigh than earlier came out of Robin's lips as he placed his now brand free hand on his forehead to stave off an impending headache.

"Laurent is smart, very smart. Though if anything, Gregor has it right in that he took in too much of Miriel. He's too analytical and won't go with a gut instinct or take a chance on rumors. This is a time sensitive mission that doesn't need someone trying to scrap every falsehood from what's being told to them."

Chrom gave a slight hum before signaling him to continue.

"Next is Kjelle. Fierce, full of spirit, but WAY too hotheaded, stubborn and sadly, shortsighted. She can follow orders and rules well enough, but get in her way and she suddenly gets tunnel vision. Combine this with the fact that if anyone tries to challenge her, she WILL stop everything and hop to it. Her training methods are also rather extreme and I'd rather she not push it on others every break they get."

A small wince came over Chrom's face as he knew Sully and Stahl's daughter was indeed a bit too overemotional for her own good as Robin continued to go over his reasons.

"Yarne is next. Being a Taguel, he's more than capable of scouting and with his enhanced senses, it'd be a snap. Despite that, we all know at heart he's a bit of a chicken rather than a rabbit. He'll fight with the best of them, but unless his life is being put in mortal danger, he will sadly run before doing anything else. The last thing we need is everyone chasing after him. For all of Vaike's enthusiasm rolling over to him, it doesn't help if he can't stay in one place out of fear of extinction."

Now Chrom could understand why Robin felt a headache just thinking about how things could go wrong.

"Lucina…well I can give you a laundry list of reasons why she CAN'T go. Though for the most important one, at the moment she's too important as a figurehead for the standing army. She's become something of a beacon of hope dressed up as Marth and showing skills just as good as your own. If she went missing for weeks or months on end, it could kill the spirits of the soldiers and after going through almost three back-to-back wars, they need her."

The Exalt nodded, knowing his future daughter could inspire just as well as he could when the situation truly called for it. As much as it pained him to not be able to send her after her brother she had more duties to attend to here; one of which was her promise to look after her infant self.

"Next up is Gerome. We ALL know that he's obsessed with fate and such and he's very apathetic towards anything that isn't Lucina, since they're married, or Minerva. Even with his caring side, the man rarely ventures out of the Wyvern Valley for much of anything. Virion and Cherche try, but it doesn't help too much." With that, Robin ticked off all the fingers on his left hand and lowered his right one for the final point.

"Nah is last. Honestly, she's much more levelheaded than the others, smart and rather vicious, being Nowi and Gaius' daughter notwithstanding. Though the main issue is the one she actually harps on all the time. Her body is that of a child and nobody will take her seriously in towns and harbors. If they're supposed to be gathering information there, Nah will do a poor job and more people will ask where her parents are. The last thing we need is some overprotective person pushing her too far and bringing out her dragonstone."

Chrom held up his own hand to stop Robin from speaking even more. "I think I get the point. Each of them has a flaw with their character save two that makes them practically worthless on missions of critical time and expanse. Lucina's case is her impact on the populace as a whole. Nah's is her physical appearance. While it's a shame that all of them can't go, at least I can put worries and fears to rest. Now let's go, I'm sure the others are waiting for us." He suggested, wanting to put a quick end to this line of conversation.

"Very well. There's not much else to cover anyways." Robin agreed. The two exited his room and made haste towards the throne room. When they reached it, they found that it was occupied by four people that would make for the search and if need be rescue group.

The first looked to be a shorter, carbon copy version of Robin, hood pulled up and all. Slung behind this tacticians back was a small traveling bag and a large tome was carried tightly in his hand. A powerful looking blade was attached to his hip.

The second was a girl that seemed to be bouncing in place with vibrant energy. She had silvery white hair done up in pigtails and wore the standard armor for the Ylissian Pegasus knights. She too was carrying a traveling bag and a wicked-looking spear was carefully placed on her back.

The third was another girl, but this one was shaking in nervousness. With short blonde hair kept away from her eyes by a headband with a feather sticking out of it and a green and brown Archer's outfit, she wouldn't look out of place in a forest, but she DID look out of place in a castle. Lying next to her feet was her traveling bag, while a quiver full of arrows along with her bow were slung across her waist.

The final person was a teenage boy, taller than the other three but was slightly hunched over so he wouldn't seem so. His brown hair seemed to shoot outwards before curling up like a cowlick. A scar could be seen on his right eye going from above the eyebrow to slightly below the eye. He had his traveling bag in his right hand while the left clutched an elaborate looking staff tipped with a crystal at the top.

Looking at the four, Chrom cleared his throat to gain attention from everyone in the room.

"Good, I'm glad to see that you're all here, hale and hearty. Now then, I'll keep this brief. As you all know Inigo, Severa and Owain vanished last week and no word has been heard from any of them. While they're all capable of fending for themselves, after the incident with Grima and leftover Risen still being seen in the world, I want you to go find them. If they give a plausible reason for leaving so suddenly, support them in their efforts. If they do not, bring them back here for a stern talking to." The Exalt explained all of this in a very serious way, his eyes narrowed to convey it.

As soon as he finished speaking, however, Robin stepped forward to take over for him. "As you're all packed and ready, head to the nearest harbor and take an express ship to Valm. According to reliable sources, that's where the three were last heading." While he spoke, he pulled out a map and traced the general path of where the three had passed through. "

I've noticed you're all carrying at bare minimum Class C and B weapons. That's good, because if you run into any leftover Risen, they're bound to be powerful. Just keep your wits about you, listen to Morgan, keep a concoction on you at all times just in case Brady is too far away to heal you and you'll be fine. Cynthia, this means NO RUSHING OFF TO DO HEROICS." Robin emphasized his last words with a piercing look that could be seen even through his hood covering his eyes, which made the bouncy silver haired girl droop a bit.

A small chuckle came from Chrom before he continued. "Remember, all we want is for you to be safe and sound, that's all. It's a fool's errand to rush in without thinking, despite the fact that we've all done just that." There was a slight pause as everyone remembered a moment where they've rushed into battle at least once unprepared. "Now, safe travels to you all. Dismissed!"

The four teens nodded and began to file out of the room one by one. Though just as Morgan was about to leave, Robin placed his hand on the shorter tacticians shoulder.

"What's up dad?" Morgan asked with a smile on his face.

It was a smile that Robin couldn't help but return. "Just letting you know that I'm proud of you for stepping up to the situation son. I also have a gift from your mother." He reached into his pocket and pulled out a necklace, in the middle of which was a brightly shining stone that seemed to be carved out of the most beautiful crystal.

"This…this is…" Morgan stuttered slightly as he looked in awe at the necklace.

"Yes, this is her Dragonstone. You deserve more than a vanished brand and a world of troubles from me. So she wanted to give you this to remember that just as much as Grima's blood runs in you, so does Naga's. As she is Naga's voice, she'll always be there to protect you."

A few sniffles began to surface as tears ran down Morgan's face from such a touching gift.

That wasn't all he had for Morgan though. "I might have given you my weapons and tomes, but I have one more personal gift for you." Robin went on as he pulled out several cards that seemed blank at first, but when Morgan blinked he saw images imprinted on them.

"Those are…" Morgan's eyes couldn't help but widen upon seeing those cards.

"Yes, you know how to use them. Call on the figures name and they'll assist you."

Robin then pulled him into a hug and held him tightly. "We love you son. Never forget that, even if you somehow forget everything else."

Morgan now sobbed freely as he hugged his father back, neither knowing that Chrom was still in the room with them but the latter silently left, leaving father and son to their moment.

Though as he left, he looked at Morgan one last time and felt a tug of familiarity pull at his memories, beyond that of when they found him at the Shrine. The thought of that memory brought a smile to his lips and for once, he would have quite the story to share with Robin.

One week later

The four time travelling friends each gave a sigh of relief as their boat finally reached land. The sea never really agreed with any of them and honestly, the thought of another naval battle gave a bit of an extra green to their gills.

They had left Ylisse after getting many hugs, farewells and well wishes from friends and family alike. To catch up with the others, they had set out on a double time march towards the harbor with some of the fastest horses in the realm at their disposal save Cynthia's Pegasus.

Though it was the boat trip that honestly killed a lot of their momentum and time as there were many things that just couldn't be helped and accounted for. Weather, pirates and Risen and not in that order either. Still, they noted that the journey was fairly quick considering the last time the Shepherds went from Plegia to Valm it took them almost twice as long due to being in the middle of a war.

"Alright everyone, spread out and ask questions. Noire, stay here and guard our stuff. We don't need any blood and thunder right now." Morgan ordered the party, each of whom gave a nod to show that they understood.

"Fie, you need not go far. I can tell you much of what you want to know." A strong, feminine voice called out to them before three of the four person group could even take five steps forward.

Looking through the crowd, it wasn't long before they saw the owner of the voice. She had on a regal looking coat that covered lacquered leather armor done in a style that was definitely not of Ylissian or Valmese origin. Strapped to her belt were two blades, one of which had wicked looking spikes that jutted out from the sides of the sword as it kept going from hilt to tip. Her long, brown hair flowed like a waterfall as she took measured steps towards them and her white headband took care to make sure it wouldn't get in her eyes.

"Ah, Say'ri, it's good to see you!" Morgan called out, eyes shining beneath his hood as their group met her halfway.

"As it is to see you Morgan. Robin sent a missive that you're looking for some wayward friends yes? A friend of Chon'sin is a friend of mine." Say'ri explained to him with a smile on her face. Though the Princess of the tiny country of Chon'sin was usually stern and never smiled for anything, around friends her true self was allowed to peek out from time to time.

"Yeah. We're looking fer Severa, Inigo and Owain. Ya seen them?" Brady cut in, looking as imposing and thuggish as ever.

"Fie. I haven't seen them myself but a few merchants that have passed through Chon'sin on the way to Rosanna spoke of three teenagers that guarded their caravan up to the Mila Tree where Naga's Voice resides. They were…quite eccentric. One wouldn't stop talking about sword hands, another flirted with every woman and the last was snarky beyond reproach." Say'ri recounted for the four.

"Yep, that's them." All of the teens said in deadpan and unison.

"The Mila Tree? If they needed mom for something I'm sure she would've sent a message." Morgan stated suddenly, going into slight thought at this.

"I wouldn't know Sir Morgan. Lady Tiki is in one of her sleep cycles right now. If she woke up a month later unawares, I'm afraid that would be normal." Say'ri told him, disappointed tinged in both her face and voice.

"Well if his mom is asleep, then why would they stop there?" Noire pointed out.

"Justice never asks for reasons Noire. I'm sure they're doing something heroic!" Cynthia piped up.

"Well, for whatever reason, we have a location. Let's mosey people! Thank you Say'ri. You've been a big help!" Morgan told everyone, clapping his hands together to show that he meant business.

"Tis no trouble at all. If the Mila Tree was closer to Chon'sin, I'd join you in your quest. As it is, I must part ways with you here as my home needs its ruler right now." Say'ri gave everyone a deep bow, customary to her culture for ones held in great respect, before turning around and leaving.

"Hey Morgan. Do ya really think we'll find 'em there?" Brady asked as everybody gathered their things and headed away from the harbor and towards the open road. The Mila tree was impossible to miss-the natural landmark seen for miles as it towered even above the clouds.

"My gut says that we'll find something there. Whether it's our friends or trouble, I don't know." Morgan responded with a bit of uncertainty.

"Hmm…well Robin's gut was never wrong, so we shouldn't doubt yours. I guess I'll take first shifts during night patrols." Cynthia volunteered, always wanting to be the first in if heroic deeds needed to be doing. What better way than to take up first watch at night when they were camped out?

"This is getting kind of scary Morgan. A-are you s-sure we aren't biting off more than we can chew here?" Noire timidly asked.

"Eh? Lay off of it Noire, we're already in too deep. Might as well make the Boss happy and at least say we tried, ya?" Brady interjected before she could touch her pendant and let her…other half out.

"Well…there's no real use to have doubts now. It's like Brady said, we're almost there so might as well see this through to the end." Morgan shrugged.

With the wind at their backs, the foursome continued down the well-worn path that would take them to their destination.

It took several days of traveling, a Risen ambush and some shenanigans from Cynthia and Noire before they made it to the Mila tree. By the time they had arrived, it was night and the full moon was casting its luminous gaze towards the calm holy waters that the tree drank from and kept itself strong with.

All four of them had their weapons clutched tightly in their arms. Having dealt with the undead not a day past, they were understandably ruffled by any sudden noises that they might hear. Though as they continued to walk across the large thick and strong roots they noticed something was…off about the normally serene place.

"There was a battle here not too long ago." Morgan muttered as he saw scorch marks belonging to a lightning tome or a levin sword blackening the bark of a nearby root.

"I don't see anything up here guys!" Cynthia called out from up high, having taken to scouting the area beforehand and then letting them know it was safe to come in. Landing her Pegasus down near the others, she shook her head sadly to further emphasize her lack of results.

"Hah. Looks like somebody really tossed up something." Brady muttered as he could also feel the wrongness permeating from the area.

"I found something!" Noire cried out. The other three gave a single nod before rushing over to where her voice was resonating from. She was near the base of the tree that would lead up to Tiki's shrine, where the ruins of a parasol lay. "This is Severa's umbrella. I remember her talking about how it was really fashionable the other week when she bought it."

As she was explaining this, Brady took a closer look at the wreck. It was cut in half and stabbed through multiple times, like a killer trying to get to a rather mobile target. "Yeah, this is hers all right. Only she would have the guts aside from Lucina and my ma to have a heart shaped umbrella." He agreed to Noire's assessment.

"So we have signs of battle, a ruined parasol and no Inigo, Owain or Severa. This leaves one of three things. One, they had a battle and left after winning or retreating." He stated, holding up his left pointer finger while looking at all of them seriously.

"Two, they fought here and were captured by someone…or something." Now they were noticing the quiet or rather, a lack of any ambient noise. There were no birds hooting, no fish swimming and no animals making any sort of sound nearby. As Morgan looked over at his friends once more, they gave a nod once they noticed how serious he looked.

"Three…whoever attacked them, left something behind to attack US!" Morgan shouted towards the end as he whipped himself around, unstrapping the Mercurius sword from his belt and thrusting it out in front of him, stopping what at first seemed to be thin air. Though as a few seconds passed, sparks flew as blade crashed against blade. What made it all the more frightening was that the rescue team couldn't see any sign of who or WHAT was attacking their leader.

"…da hell is this?!" Brady shouted as everyone got in a basic triangle formation. Essentially, he would pair up with Noire, who would provide long distance support while Cynthia and Morgan wiped the floor with whomever tried to attack them from short or medium range. "How can we fight if we can't see 'em coming?!"

Gritting his teeth, Morgan managed to push the invisible blade away and countered with a basic thrust to the chest, or rather he aimed where it would be and found resistance there. Soon enough a purple mist started to flow out of seemingly nowhere as the sound of a body hitting the ground filled their ears.

"Well, if anything, the feeling of bloodlust in the air just doubled. Focus on where it's coming from and we should be fine!" Morgan said to the others as the purple mist started to flow up from the ground. They could all see the shimmering of what appeared to be invisible soldiers but as soon as they could get even the most basic bead on them, they vanished.

"M-morgan…" Noire whimpered as she nocked an arrow to her bow.

"Well a hero can't let something like this get in the way. Let's get them!" Cynthia crowed as she held her spear at the ready.

All of them knew that they were about to be in for the fight of their lives since this was an enemy they couldn't see very clearly, yet was more than ready to murder them. It would test their skills to their utmost limit as unlike the aggressive and stupid Risen, these…things that were getting closer and closer had some sort of intelligence in them to have not attacked yet.

This was one battle Morgan could not lose and he did not intend to as he pulled his hood over his head, letting the comforting material cover him slightly before getting in a ready stance with sword in hand.

Another land, Another time

There was nothing but darkness where he watched the world turn in whimsy to his wants and needs. Those three fools his…other half had acquired were going to be problematic. Lilith had failed him and was now missing, beyond the scope of his sight as well since she knew how to mask her presence. He had gotten her trained to be on par with the mightiest of assassins, but not only did she fail him, the rancid scent of betrayal clung to the air.

It would be fine though. He was still tethered to that other world for a few more hours, until the moon died away and the sun took its place. Already, he felt four warriors similar to the intruders in his realm enter the area under his control. That fool of a swordsman couldn't stop those three, so where might had become undone, this time magic would have to do. With but a thought, he sent more and more of his arcane warriors, including his new second in command. As a thrall, there was no chance that THIS one would betray him.

No…he would have his revenge against the world soon enough. Then everything would finally stop and he would be in absolute control like he should have been so long ago. The humans would be destroyed and the Silent Dragon would once more rule as he should.

Mila Tree

Five Minutes After Battle Began (aka 5 Turns)

The eerie quiet that had taken hold of the mystic area devolved into the sounds of crashing steel, bow, magic and battle cries when four warriors seemed to go up against an endless invisible battalion of soldiers. Though with the fact that their attackers only shimmered and shone when they walked or attacked, it was hard for the defenders to gain any headway. Rather, they were losing ground fast and quickly found themselves at the stairway that would eventually lead up to where Tiki, Naga's Voice, was slumbering.

"Dammit!" Morgan shouted as he pulled out a yellow tome with what seemed to be a symbol of an arrow pointing upwards on it. Upon opening it, lightning crackled around both his book and his hand while he summoned the arcane energy inside of it. "Thoron!" he cried out as a lance of pure electric energy shot out in front of him, piercing through two of the invisible warriors.

"Time to pay!" Cynthia shouted from above as she reined in her Pegasus and took careful aim with the wickedly sharp lance in her hand, twirling it several times to make sure any lingering blood was wiped off of it. With a simple twist of her hand, the winged horse shot forth like a rocket. Steed and rider struck as one, eliminating what looked to be a mage that was trying to attack Brady from behind.

"BLOOD AND THUNDER!" came the shout of a rather aggressive woman. It turned out to be Noire, who held a Steel Bow in her hands.

Her face contorted into a fierce snarl as she nocked an arrow and let it fly, watching it stab an enemy wyvern knight's dragon in the neck. Its death sent it and its rider tumbling down into the sacred waters where they evaporated almost instantly.

"We need a plan here Morgan! Else your Ma is gonna get a rude awakening!" Brady shouted. The crystal on top of his Mend staff glowed brightly as he put it through its paces.

"There's not much TO plan! We're just gonna have to take our time and eliminate them piece by piece while making sure they don't get to the stairs." Morgan responded grimly as his tome was swapped with his sword and he once more lashed out against an enemy swordsman. "Cross diamond formation!"

The four friends went back to back, covering all their sides as seemingly endless foes continued to gather on their position. Pointing to his left, Morgan called for them to charge in that direction. They ran for their lives, thrashing out at anything that came near them before stopping near the western half of the Mila Tree's root system.

With some breathing room afforded to them, Morgan could strategize a little better than before when they had to keep reacting to everything. "Alright, I think we'll go with a line formation. Sword, Spear, Bow. Take out ANYTHING that shimmers but make sure to adjust a few degrees to your left or right. Brady, stay in the back but if they try to ambush, get between Cynthia and Noire. It's time to tip the scales!"

A large war cry came from his comrades as they adjusted their weaponry slightly. Cynthia swapped out her Killer Lance for a thinner but no less deadlier two sided throwing Spear. Noire put away her Steel Bow and took out a smaller, but thicker Brave Bow. Brady put away the worn Mend staff and took out another, longer staff with a finely cut crystal shaped like a diamond placed on the tip, the Psychic Staff. As for Morgan, the Mercurius was tightly held in his grasp as they each took their respective ready positions.

All the while, their invisible enemies continued to slowly march towards them. The first to approach appeared to be several mercenary-like soldiers, if the large swords and axes that shone ominously for naught but a scant few seconds was any indication.

"CHARGE!" Morgan shouted as the four ran towards the group in perfect step behind each other. He started things off with a long sweeping slash from the Mercurius, the legendary blade proving its mettle by batting aside the lesser made weapons of their foes leaving them wide open for Cynthia, who had taken aim and threw her spear forward.

Her aim was true and the weapon was plunged into what appeared to be the foes head. The other invisible warriors looked dumbly at their fallen companion, only to get two arrows to their throats, courtesy of Noire who had shot one and then gracefully twirled on the heel of her foot while nocking and shooting the second arrow in less than a few seconds time.

Before they could advance further several sharp objects landed in front of them, causing Morgan to call for a halt. They looked to be metal stars of some kind and a vague memory came to mind before they vanished from complete sight.

When his dad told him about the various warriors in the world, he mentioned that in lands like Chon'sin, warriors were trained to be one with shadows and used unconventional weapons in place of tried and true bows and arrows. One of them had been…

"Shuriken. So are these the so called 'ninja' that father mentioned? Alright guys, we're going up against something tricky. Apparently the enemies have ninjas coming at us. They're like elite assassins but from places like Chon'sin. They are fast and do NOT play fair. Don't get hit by those weapons unless you want to get poisoned or something."

Cynthia took those words to heart as she raised her Pegasus up into the air and did several strafing runs. Picking up a trick that Cordelia had taught her when she asked for advice on how to be a better Pegasus Knight, she spun her weapon in place but made no move to actually attack or throw it. Already having caught the enemies attention by flying into the air, she cemented their attrition with them thinking she was about to attack. Yet when she strafed against them, all her spinning spear did was deflect the ninja's throwing stars.

Even if they were hard to see, she could tell that they were confused by her actions, at least until she grinned and winked at them as she took in a good lungful of air before shouting the words that damned them.

"GET 'EM!"

Being the diversion might not have been the most heroic of things to do BUT it did serve its purpose in allowing Morgan and Noire to get close to them. As they were looking up, they did not notice the two silently moving towards them until one of the ninjas took a sword to the gut. Unlike the swordsman they dispatched however, the ninja remained calm and threw their shuriken at Morgan.

One managed to get deflected by Noire's arrow, more luck than skill led by adrenaline fueled desperation and the other was jammed into place by Cynthia's throwing spear, allowing Morgan to jump back into position while the two girls took over. Long sweeps of her lance allowed the Pegasus Knight to deflect the most harmful of the projectiles while Noire retaliated in kind, scoring deathblow after deathblow until all the ninjas were dead.

With the second zone secured, the four friends were feeling much more confident. As they became used to the battle, the element of surprise was more or less gone. They knew what signs to look for and they started to make short work of the other enemy groups, including some Wyvern Riders that actually knew how to use magic much to their surprise.

It was also a little disconcerting since up until that moment, they had some comfort in the knowledge that Wyvern Riders specialized ONLY in physical attacks with no magical prowess to speak of. That these attackers had something like that in their arsenal had been a nasty surprise and all of them, including Brady had taken several elemental attacks on their person.

Still, in their hope they persevered against the pain and pushed their way onwards. Even if it was slow going, they began to gain back all the ground they lost. Just as they started to gain some confidence, however, was when disaster struck and it hit them in the form of a spell that seemed to literally bend the space in front of it before creating an explosion that sent the four flying back. Even Cynthia and her Pegasus weren't agile enough to avoid the blast completely.

Groaning slightly, Noire was the first one up being the furthest from the blast zone. Straining her eyes slightly and trying to ignore the ringing that was going on in her ears, she could make out unfamiliar yet somewhat familiar purple flames. The last time she had seen fires like that, hell on earth had started…but at the same time, she didn't get the same feeling of despair that normally caused her to grip her pendant and let her 'other half' take over.

Instead, she looked further and saw the outline of a woman. It was very obvious to her that even if she could not see the enemy's true form, at one point in life they must have been very beautiful. Yet she could make out a cruel sneer plastered onto her face which robbed whatever beauty this woman once had. Bringing her eyes down some, the archer saw a tome clutched tightly in her hands that was glowing with the same light that had attacked them.

"…it would be a magic user." She muttered to herself as the others started to get back up, albeit shakily.

"M-Morgan, I don't think we can take another blow like that…" Brady grunted as he took out his fortify staff and used a little trick that Inigo showed him to heal them while putting minimal strain on the staff itself, leaving it preserved for future use.

"Tell me something I don't already know…ugh…" Morgan managed to wheeze out before spitting out some blood that had been building up in his mouth. "Internal injuries suck…"

"Come on Morgan and take it like a man! We need a plan." Cynthia gritted out as she got back on her Pegasus Huey. The Pegasus was as mad as his owner and ready to take vengeance on her behalf.

The invisible mage shifted slightly, apparently shocked that all four of them survived the blow. The battle had been waged for so long that the moon had reached its apex in the night sky and its luminescence shined down on all of them. That's when the four noticed that their opponents were beginning to get more and more visible to them.

"I see…whatever power that was keeping them invisible to us is fading. Alright everyone, one last push and give it everything you got!"

It wasn't much of a plan, but Morgan would rather risk it all on one shot than try to play it safe and end up getting all of them killed doing back and forth fighting. Cut off the head of the snake and the rest of the body would hopefully follow.

With a fierce roar, the three combatants and healer rushed at the mage on horseback, not knowing that this was what her master had been waiting for the whole time. The vile smirk that had graced her face grew even deeper as she waved her hand with nary a care in the world.

None was needed when a large magic circle appeared underneath everyone and drew them into a swirling vortex of energy before vanishing as if nothing had ever happened. Those that would pass by later would only find more scars of battles, but no indication of bodies being found.

-Unknown Place, Unknown Time-

They were falling, as if going through an endless abyss. All that they could see was darkness, swirling clouds of black miasma around them. The slightest touch, the act of breathing itself brought pain to their senses. It was agony and torture in its purest form. Each warrior was screaming their lungs out, which in turn brought even more pain unto themselves as they could feel themselves being changed…warped.

A chuckle was heard even amongst all the cries, pleas and screams. "Finally, a way to undo what my other half caused. You four, you shall be resurrected under the name of the Silent Dragon, Anankos! Let my name be forever burned into your mind, for it shall be the only thing left in it!"

Morgan's eyes, which had been shut from how he grimaced against the pain, snapped open at those words. Like hell he would lose his memories again!

"NOOOOOOO!" he shouted as he let loose every bit of spare power he had in his body. Waves of magic fluctuated off of him as he tried to keep whatever that Silent Dragon thing was out of his mind. He had already lost most of his memories once and what precious little he had left was not going to leave without going over his dead and broken body.

"Hoh? What's this? A child whose dragon blood is more potent than even that accursed line? You'd make an ever better vessel than that fool of a King. I'll start with you first." The voice declared before the darkness swarmed Morgan.

If his screams weren't loud enough before, then they were about to be. The foreign power forcefully entered his body, trying to warp and corrode him in a way not unlike what Grima had done to his father.

Already he could feel it slipping away. The sensations and the feelings associated with his memory before it was painstakingly, slowly and cruelly plucked out of his mind, no matter how much he resisted.

 _Playing with Cynthia and Owain, their Justice Cabal embodying their ideals of a peaceful future through their sweat, blood and hard work._

 _Inigo trying to help him come up with various new strategies._

 _B*a*y a**empting ** help with his ********_

 _L****a learn*** p**ce during ***_

 _N**** and ********_

 _**h_

 _****e_

… _._

His friends, they…they…who were they? Who were these strangers next to him, being tormented like he was? What had they been doing and why did they deserve something like this? His experiences in life, his humble origins, all of them soon slipped away not unlike water between his fingers.

'No…no please, not that one!' he pleaded in his mind as he saw the last fragile memory he had left, the one where he was walking down a forest with his father and mother. He could see her, he knew who she was and he didn't want to forget that. Anything else he could gladly give up, but not his parents.

"M-mother…MOTHER!" Morgan cried out in absolute agony. Before Anankos could finally take away everything that made the boy who he had been, a radiant light seemed to come pouring out of the Dragonstone that was carried on his neck. Whereas the previous burst of power had been the boys own, this one was something familiar to the dragon. Familiar…and unwelcome as a glowing blue maiden appeared before him. Her eyes were closed, but it did not detract from the obvious dragonic look of her appearance. The pointed ears, the sharp nails and the feeling of knowledge poured out of the blue maiden like a tidal wave.

"What is this? Who dares disrupt the Silent Dragon Anankos?!" he demanded of the maiden.

Instead of rising up to the provocation that was obvious in the other dragon's voice, the blue maiden instead gave off a calm, collected feeling. Like she was in absolute control and they both knew it.

"Heed me. I am Naga, the Divine Dragon who watches over my little ones. You, Silent One, have invaded my domain and you are trying to pervert one who shares in my blood."

Anankos snarled at that declaration. It was one thing if it was just a dragon, but the watcher of an entire domain…that was not something even he could take lightly as they were still in between her world and his own. It meant that neither his powers nor her own were stronger than the other.

"So what? Your so-called 'little ones' have already done the same to MY realm and I am just getting my vengeance." He shot back, justifying his actions, weak as they were.

"The three little ones, two also carrying my blood that left my realm are under YOUR blessing Silent One. You cannot say that they have invaded when they were instead invited." Naga calmly pointed out.

"Invited? More like forcibly come through by a small piece of me. Do not think of yourself as all mighty or all knowing, Naga." A snarl curled on the lips of the Silent Dragon.

"I will give you one last warning, Silent One. Leave my subjects alone and release my little one or you will find out the truth of just which of us is truly stronger." While these words were said almost casually, the threat behind it was very real. Anankos knew that even with the death of his weaker half and its power returned to him, it was not enough to tackle the blue maiden and win. Normally, the Silent Dragon would be rational and think the threat through. Rationality, however, had long since left his body and only anger and rage remained.

"NEVER! They are in MY realm now and I will do with them as I wish!" At this, Anankos released his power at the blue maiden, who did not even move an inch as she stood protectively over the young Tactician.

"You are just as gone as Grima, it seems. There is no hope left for someone like you." Naga whispered sadly as the attack washed over her. In return, she opened her mouth slightly and a large torrent of dragon fire, as azure as herself, came pouring out in waves. It easily pushed back the shadows casted over by Anankos, revealing a realm that seemed to be forever stuck between time and space. Something beautiful yet twisted, it made no logical sense but it was there, defiant of any sort of laws that bound the rest of everything together.

"GAHHH!" Anankos cried out as the holy flames scorched his entire being. Even being leagues taller than the remnant of the maiden, it made no difference save making him a bigger target. He had to retreat and heal himself lest her fire burn to his very soul. "NAGA! You may win this day yet, but I promise, I will bring RUIN to your so called 'little ones' and will make you watch as I feast from their corpses!"

With that, the Silent Dragon fled back to his home, his true home where even Naga's power would not have much effect. Instead, she turned over to the four champions she helped send back in time to save her own realm from her wicked half, Grima.

"It is too late for me to bring you back, but fear not. You are not alone." She whispered to the quartet. Taking in a slight breath, she blew out a healing wind, fixing their wounds and putting them to sleep. To Morgan, the one who suffered the most, she took him into her arms and cradled him like a baby.

"My dear, sweet child. You did not deserve the suffering and agony that you just endured. I cannot undo what the Silent One did, but with what spirit I have left before we leave my realm, I shall give you my blessing. It will help you survive in this new realm you are in." The words were whispered into the boy's ears before she kissed his forehead. The form she held slowly fading away into motes of blue lights that traveled and danced across his skin before settling itself down on his right hand, filling him with power unlike that which this new realm would ever see.

"Indeed, you four shall be put through trials that you should never have had to face, but you will come out all the stronger for it. Is that not right, my voice?" Naga asked as she watched the four warriors slowly continue their downward fall towards a new home…and a new beginning.

-Mila Tree-

Sitting on an Altar, a robed figure that was slumbering slowly had tears come down unbidden onto their face.

"My boy…my sweet, darling little baby boy. I'm so sorry I could not protect you here…but she gave you the means for me to always be with you over there." The words were whispered, but echoed hauntingly throughout the shrine and the realm below.

-Unknown Place, Unknown Time-

For Corrin, life began and ended with the same four walls that surrounded him. The Northern Fortress of Nohr may have been his home, true, but it was also his prison. Never knowing what the outside world looked like, he was stuck seeing it pass by through the many windows that graced the fortress, not unlike the story of a certain princess that one his maids read to him when he was younger.

Looking at the night sky from the spires that were topped on the Fortress, one flattened out to serve as an impromptu training ground, he was still smiling at seeing the stars unbidden for once; The usual dull and dreary sky clearing up for a rare while.

"Lord Corrin? Lord Corrin!" A voice cried out from nearby, startling him and nearly making the teen lose his balance from where he was sitting. He managed to hold onto his position, however, as a black and pink blur raced towards him.

When the blur stopped, he saw the familiar locks of straight, long pink hair belonging to one of his maids and most stead-fast friends, Felicia. She seemed especially out of breath when normally she was one of the most physically fit out of all the workers that stayed around in the lonely tower.

"Felicia, what's wrong?" he asked, curious as to why she was trying to find him. He had already completed his classes for the day and as far as he knew, his brothers and sisters wouldn't be visiting for another week.

After catching her breath, the maid took to quickly wiping away the sweat from her brow and straightening up, trying to look as immaculate as she should be. "Ahem…Lord Corrin, I was sent to remind you that Joker has planned some lessons on court etiquette early tomorrow morning. EARLY." She stated, stressing that last word to show just how brow-beaten a talk she had gotten from her fellow caretaker.

A small sigh came from Corrin's lips as he ran a hand through his short, spiky cobalt blue locks. Red eyes looked calmly into green as he spoke to her. "I know Felicia, but I couldn't sleep. I didn't mean to make Joker angry and send you after me. Besides, you can see the stars for once." He explained, waving his arm to the sky above.

The maid looked up and gasped in delight "Wow…I didn't think you could see the stars anymore from here. It's always cloudy or rainy." She stated.

"You're telling me. At least you get to go out with Gunter and the others." Corrin pointed out.

"I know and I'm sorry you can't come with us when we go grocery shopping in the capital, but…oh look!" Felicia began to give her reasons before pointing at a group of four tightly clustered stars. They seemed to twinkle and shine before breaking away from the others and started to slowly fall, one slower than the rest.

"Ah, a shooting star! Make a wish Felicia!" Corrin shouted in excitement as he closed his eyes to prepare for his own.

' _Please…please let me leave this place soon, so I may go with my brothers and sisters on a grand adventure for our kingdoms name.'_

After thinking out his wish, he opened his eyes before giving a slightly startled cry. Three of the shooting stars continued on their path downwards, towards the land of the east, Hoshido. The fourth though…the fourth star seemed to just stop and drop before it continued to get closer to them!

"Woah! Lord Corrin, run!" Felicia cried out as she too noticed this and both Lord and Maid made tracks to the other end of the spires while watching the star get closer and closer to the Fortress.

"Uh…this is going to be hard to explain to Xander if the star destroys my room." Corrin suddenly piped up as he took note of the projected path of destruction the falling star was going to cause.

That was when it landed harshly onto the spire where the two once stood. Dust, dirt and debris were sent flying everywhere and both he and Felicia had to dig their heels in so that they would not get sent flying away. When it was all over, they unconsciously let down the arms that they threw in front of their faces to shield them in order to see what damage had been wrought.

To their complete surprise though, the spire was almost completely undamaged, save for something that was apparently hot enough to release smoke from the landing site.

"I…I guess this place is tougher than they say it is. Heh, heh…uh…" Felicia chuckled weakly before noticing Corrin walking towards the crash. "Wait for me!"

Waving away the smoke, Corrin and Felicia both gasped at what they found. A person, lying unconscious against the tile wearing the strangest looking robe that either had ever seen. It was black with what appeared to be creepy purple eyes going across it and apparently was bigger than the person that wore it. A closer inspection had Felicia almost gaping.

"Lord Corrin…he…he looks a lot like you."

Kamui was slightly startled to see that she was right. The stranger had hair as dark a shade of blue as his own, though the strangers hair was flat, short and matted to his face it seemed. "He doesn't look any older than me either…" he noted, seeing how young the man looked along with the pointed and it seemed slightly serrated ears he had that were longer than his own plain ears.

"I didn't think that those bedtime stories me and Flora read to you were true. What with people living amongst the Heavens and Stars and all…"

Though this left them both with a slight conundrum as they looked at each other. What were they supposed to even DO?

-POV Change-

A dull ache coursed throughout his body as everything seemed to come back to him. First was his smell and his nose wrinkled slightly as he could smell smoke. Taste was next and he could feel the bad urge to rehydrate himself as his tongue was dry, very dry. Touch soon followed as he could feel himself lying on something hard, bumpy and uncomfortable. The last two to come back were his sight and hearing, both of which jumped in at the same time as he blinked. He found himself looking at a darkened sky with two people that were standing next to him, one male and one female.

"Lord Corrin, we have to do SOMETHING." The female pointed out. He could see long, flowing pink hair, some of it kept in place by a white headband while she wore a peculiar black outfit of sorts. A servant, perhaps? Though the nausea that flowed through him as he tried to recall where he had seen that outfit before made him stop and refocus on their conversation.

"What do you propose we do?" The male, Corrin, asked in return. He could see the male was definitely the more dressed up of the two, wearing a sort of strange, white armor and blue cape. He had dark blue hair, red eyes, round ears and a scar that seemed to run down from his forehead to just slightly under his right eye.

"I…I dunno." The female said uncomfortably in return before looking down at him and letting out a small gasp. "Ah!"

This caused the male to look down at him as well before offering a small smile. "I see you're awake now."

The female couldn't help but smile as well. "Hey there!" She offered as she fidgeted in place.

"There are better places to take a nap than on the ground, you know?" The male pointed out before reaching out towards him. "Give me your hand."

He didn't know why he complied with that request. Maybe it was the earnest smile, or the nagging feeling in his head that told him that he could trust this stranger. So he brought his right hand forward, noticing an odd mark that was on top of it. It was a light blue and it was shaped somewhat like a teardrop being held up by two hands, but now was not the time to be focusing on such things.

After all, he had two people to talk to and figure out just where, when…and who he was.

 _AN: That's it for Prologue 1! Thank you all for reading the beginning of the epic tale of Mark of Destiny! Now I'm sure that there's a lot of questions that you're going to ask, so I'm going to pre-empt most of what I think people will ask from simple to more complex and not in that order. SOME SPOILERS might be seen for those that haven't played through the entirety of the game, so be warned!_

 _'What Route are you going to take': All three of them hopefully! Though Revelations will be saved for last, it will be up to fan demand and reviews to tell me whether or not Conquest or Birthright will go first!_

 _'Pairings': Well, I know I'm going piss off a lot of people by saying this but NO CORRIN/KAMUI AND AQUA/AZURA. I'm sorry but she's a lot more useful plot wise being a friend and a source of wisdom to him than as a spouse. Plus…well they ARE actually blood related cousins so…yeah….also Kamui/Corrin will NOT be paired with females on either side of the royal families so Camilla, Elise, Hinoka and Sakura are out as well since it would be too awkward on the Nohrian side, and Ryouma keeps silent that they're not related on the Hoshidan side so he is kept in the dark and thinks Hinoka and Elise are blood relatives._

 _As for Morgan…well his options are a LOT more open than Corrin's is, that's for sure. His Revelations pairing is locked with Camilla._

 _Morgan's 'Supports' are as follows_

 _Birthright/Revelations: Crimson/Scarlet, Kagerou, Orochi, Reina/Yuugiri, Cynthia, Noire, Selkie, Brady, Corrin, Joker/Jakob, Felicia, Silas, Suzukaze, Ryouma, Takumi, Hinoka, Sakura, Anna, Rinkah, Asugi, Rhajat, Caledori_

 _Conquest/Revelations: Felicia, Flora, Joker/Jakob, Lazlow/Inigo, Odin/Owain, Selena/Severa, Xander/Marx, Camilla, Elise, Leo/Leon, Charlotte, Velouria, Soliei, Ophelia, Anna, Corrin, Silas, Suzukaze_

 _You will notice a lack of Azura/Aqua. That's on purpose, because she distrusts and dislikes Morgan and the feeling is mutual. It will be explained why later._

 _Supports: I will NOT be going over all supports for each and every character. There will be definite hints of who is getting paired with who but for the most part it will be Corrin and Morgan's supports that will be focused on, with some of the more important characters more fleshed out as well. Some may hate me for the pairings I will choose but so be it. There is also going to be a slight twist. As things are in a war, relationships become complicated and tense. Lies, sex and betrayal are all game. Sometimes the one you love doesn't love you back, or someone else confesses before you do. Sometimes they're forced into political marriages or social status/class forbids the relationship. So supports will be different._

 _Ex. Kamui and Felicia have feelings for each other, but because she is a maid she can never be with him. She CAN choose to be a mistress but she knows that it would never work out when Kamui has to choose a bride of his own. That doesn't stop them from kissing and fooling around but in the end it stays Rank A(+). There are loopholes to this though that will be explained in the story._

 _How and why these four are here: Anankos had told Owain, Inigo and Severa in the Xenologue that they had to go to the Mila tree BEFORE the Full Moon. An exact date for their arrival and subsequent trip to Valla was NOT given (I replayed the Xenologue enough times to make sure), so for plot sake Morgan and the others arrived about a day after the others did right as the Full Moon was rising, being sent on an express ship and given much faster horses while the former group took their time to get there._

 _Dragon's Blood: Morgan is the only one that actually got a blessing that allows him to fight Fate's characters from Naga and the mark on his hand becomes important later on, along with the dragonstone, but since he was blessed by Naga and not Anankos, he will not be able to use the Dragon's Veins in the game. Cynthia, Noire, and Brady will get an alternate method from Mikoto that allows them to combat in the Fate's world as well like Inigo/Owain/Severa had to._

 _Tone and setting differences: There is gonna be a HUGE difference in the tone, pacing and setting between Conquest and Birthright. Conquest will show the darker political overtones and the heavier consequences of ones actions in Nohr, whereas Birthright is a lot breezier and free in how everyone interacts with each other. Revelations is a lot more plot heavy than the other two._

 _Mindsets will be different as well. Corrin and Morgan harden their hearts in Conquest, while letting themselves be free to be themselves in Birthright._

 _Japanese/English names: Birthright will use Japanese names, Conquest English, Revelations will use a mixture of both, which is why you saw me using their Jap and Eng names in the supports above. That's really all there is to it. Cynthia, Brady, Noire and Morgan will be using their Japanese names in this one as Morgan+Amnesia=Not even remembering his own name, but story books Corrin reads will fill that gap name-wise._

 _DLC+Kids: Yes, ALL DLC will be included/glossed over at least once. Some in Birthright, some in Conquest, some in Revelations and some in all three (the ones that make sense obviously). Kids will also be included, but Kana is aged up to legal cause loli is loli and shota is shota….yeah no, not cool in my book. Pretty much they're like Morgan in Awakening personality wise. Fem Kana being sadistic, Male Kana more airheaded_

 _Why all male MC's?: Cause honestly I think being one gender and forcing the kid to be the opposite gender is not fair in the slightest. If it's frustrating or aggravating to you, then please, keep it to yourself. I know there are purists out there that don't think such a change should be touched but in this case, I had to because it just didn't feel right to me._

 _Who will be Morgan's kid (if any)?: Morgan WILL have a child yes and his name is Kris (yes, THAT Kris if your knowledge is brushed up on Fire Emblem History). For those that need a hint, he's from one the few games that was never released in America but was in Japan that let you create a character. His class is Samurai/Mercenary/Tactician (Birthright/Conquest/Revelations respectively)._

 _Amiibo: Oh I have SPECIAL plans for them, so yes they're in as well including Roy! Ike will be bro, Marth with be Fabulous (also have a special scene in mind for him between him and Morgan that will reference Tiki.)_

 _My Fort: Also included as this is the main allowance for support conversations/downtime/allowing DLC to be explored. My Fort is essentially shown to be outside of Time and Space for the most part with time going at a snail's pace while instantly teleporting the army to wherever they need to go. So it allows them to go into the Dragon's Gate and explore the DLC without worrying about the war. Though obviously it will be expanded a bit to allow barracks and such for the army to mingle in. It also let's 'Tactician Time' and War Councils be shown._

 _Character deaths: ….This is gonna be the hardest part of the fanfic. Fates is ALL about the consequences of your actions. Somebody will always die no matter what you do. That is what war is and this fanfic will be no different. Fan favorites will die depending on which route is taken. Though with the inclusion of Morgan some character deaths will be avoided, including one VERY specific death in Conquest that I thought was BS. Though in exchange, it means someone else has to die in that persons place._

 _Mind you, however, that whoever dies will get a proper sendoff and that Morgan's clashes with his friends will be appropriately emotional, as will Corrin vs. Siblings._

 _Why choose Cynthia/Noire/Brady: Aside from listing the other's worst personality traits as Robin had pointed out, the REAL reason behind the choosing of those three is that they're actually the ones that would make the most sense being seen in Hoshido. Pegasus Knights are the bread and butter, Archer's are commonplace and it'll be easy enough for Brady to switch one priesthood to another. All the others were honestly impractical for story usage. Yarne would have eating attempts on him every other chapter by Kitsune/Werewolf, there is no Hoshidan knight class nor Wyvern Knight, Laurent would NOT give up spells for mystic paper being too properly scientific for it, Manakete's are more or less extinct with the exception of Corrin, Morgan, Kris and Kana. Amiibo Lucina is taking place of Awakening Lucina and Amiibo Robin is gonna have a LOT of explaining to do with the Awakening kids. While it means that one of the Hoshidan siblings is getting a third retainer that's the same class as them, it's worth it._

 _See where I'm going with this?_

 _Awakening vs. Amiibo vs. Fate's character strength/skill: A lot of the Fate's fanfics I've read usually keep Laslow, Odin and Selena at levels of strength and skill equal to that of the other retainers and weaker than their Lords. I personally see that as untrue. They have gone through at least one war minimum if the author in question uses Future Past versions, and three in Awakening. Their skills and strength should decimate all but Garon, Sumeragi, Gunter, Reina and maybe Iago because the latter is a total cheat. Xander mentioned that Laslow almost defeated him in a duel, but truth be told you can tell from his words that Laslow was in actuality holding back quite a bit. It doesn't matter how much training you have, it's extremely rare for a rookie to beat out an experienced battlefield mercenary. Yes while Xander and Ryoma have been in skirmishs, etc. etc. they were never in an actual, full blown war. There's a difference and you know it._

 _So once the war starts in earnest, there is no more holding back for any of the Future Children of Awakening._

 _Odin is a bit unique since he was never a spellcaster but a Mymirdon. Thanks to Lissa's magic growth, however, he makes for a passable Dark Mage but everyone knows Swordmaster is his true calling._

 _Morgan will seem OP for quite some time. He has access to ALL classes now save the gender specific Lord and Witch classes. Plus just like the others, he fought in maximum three wars. You will see him stand toe to toe with Ryoma, Gunter and others because Robin didn't raise no weak child. Even with his amnesia, muscle memory alone has him compensate along with his innate tactical skills._

 _You can bet if I was Robin I'd have my friends teach my son how to fight. Lon'qu with eastern swords, Miriel spells, Tharja Dark Magic, Vaike with axes, Tiki with his dragonstone, Kellam with his lance, Sully for horseback, Virion for Archery, Cherce for Wyvern riding and Chrom/Robin themselves for western swordsmanship. Mind you Morgan won't be the greatest and he certainly won't win all the time, but he definitely has all his bases covered saved Pegasus riding, which Tsubaki will teach him in Birthright and Revelations._

 _As for the Amiibo's, they are Lucina, Robin, Roy, Marth and Ike pulled in about halfway through their respective stories. So they are definitely no pushovers, but neither will they be stupidly overpowered. Still, they ARE renowned heroes for a reason and it'll show for those fights._

 _Weapons: I know Birthright focused on weapon effects, while Conquest focused on raw damage. For this, I'm keeping older Fire Emblem weapons around as well. Hoshido will have Wo Dao's for their 'killer sword', Killer Lance as…well Killer Lance, and a spiked club as their version of a Killer Axe._

 _On the Conquest side of things, they will have a poleaxe as a swordreaver weapon, a claymore for a lancereaver and a trident as an axereaver. Light magic will be something only priests/priestess can use in Hoshido to combat the Dark Mages in Nohr. To at least properly compensate._

 _Fathers of Cynthia/Brady/Noire/Severa/Owain: Henry, Kellam, Libra, Lon'qu, Donnel respectively._

 _Chapter names: Only Game 'Chapter' 5 and 6 has the names decided, Along with a few Revelation Chapter names._

 _Into the Light/Blood_

 _Descent into Darkness/Bond_

 _Falling In-between/Fates_

 _A Mother's Love_

 _A Mother's Sacrifice_

 _A Father's Ignoble Disgrace_

 _Daughter and Mother/Silent Requiem (debating on which one for that chapter)_


	2. Chapter 2: Awakening

Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny

Chapter 2: Awakening

 _A/N: Not Beta-Read, Spelling and grammar mistake assured. More A/N at End._

" _Two years had passed like nothing; the ethereal sands of time mercilessly continuing its flow ever onward. Ever since I was found by Lord Corrin, I have worked hard to make sure that the trust and faith he placed in me was not misjudged. In that same amount of time, I have yet to dream. Every night, I am greeted by nothing but pitch blackness until I am awoken the next day by one of the servants that work in the fortress, usually Felicia. Bless her heart, she tries so hard to do what she can to help me dream. She read stories to me and sang folk lore from her homeland with her sister Flora's help and yet it did nothing._

 _If anything, it was her inherent clumsiness that tended to stir something inside of me every now and again. If I had to blame my loss of dreams on anything I would put it on the fact that I have no true memories to speak of. Yet each time I see Felicia trip and slam face first onto the ground I have a natural reaction to call her 'Cynthia' and ask if it was her boots again that made her fall._

 _Despite the lack of memories, however, I am not academically or mentally challenged. If anything, Jakob (or Joker as he is fondly called behind his back by the others) tends to call me a Savant since I pick things up on a rather frightening level to him. In the two years I have been in the Northern Fortress, I have learned to cook (to little success according to everyone that tastes my meals), sew, tame horses to little effect as they seem frightened of me to a rather instinctual level and teach. Usually Lilith has to come to calm them down if I am unable to._

 _Lilith…she's the most quiet and demure out of all of us and yet for all the work she puts in, neither of us can seem to trust one another. Every time we talk the atmosphere becomes tense between us, almost suffocating really. So we learned to read each other's body language to get around it and while most of the time hers is a mixture of fear and self-loathing, we get the job done._

 _Gunther, the old retired general that acts as Lord Corrin's combat instructor and father in all but name, also sets me on edge but for a different reason. We trust and get along well but it is the experience, the wariness that comes from decades of blood and battle that makes me uneasy. Despite that our mock battles turn out to be something worth watching by the rest of the Northern Fortress. It even picked up the attention of Lord Corrin's siblings._

 _Flora and Felicia are sweethearts and sisters first, maids second. Felicia was the eternally optimistic sister, with her bright pink hair and a smile always seconds away. Though she seems to be cursed with horrific luck as a servant as she always trips over her own feet, or even nothing but thin air at times. It usually ends with something getting broken, someone getting hurt or a combination of both. Which then leads to Jakob dragging her away for more training. Though in battle she shone highly with a keen battle sense that the other two servants did not seem to have._

 _Flora was the older, more studious of the sisters with her light blue hair tied into two very short pigtails. She was the no nonsense type but she always cared for Felicia and tried to cover for her mishaps as best as she could. She also has a very obvious crush on Jakob that everyone but them seems to see. It's rather amusing to see her trying to gather the courage to ask him to a private night together only for Jakob to misinterpret it as her being too good at her job. She is also much more in control of her ice powers than Felicia and can conjure up blizzards with little thought if need be._

 _Jakob himself is the task master of the group. Every morning he is up earlier than anyone and only goes to sleep after everyone else has. Just like me, he lives for Lord Corrin and takes care of all needs, real or imagined but becomes real later. I've seen many a noble try to steal his services only to be harshly rebuked. Everyone aside from Flora calls him Joker though because he never knows how to take one but he very much knows how to give one in a snarky manner. To him, if you are not being useful to Lord Corrin, you are worthless. If you are trying to harm Lord Corrin, you'll find yourself quickly missing your head._

 _This will mark the end of today's journal entry. As my name is still as lost to me as my memories I will, as always, use the name bestowed upon me by Lord Corrin. A name I wear with pride since it was the name of a once great Tactician, who had wedded a peerless swordswoman that he helped guide to victory._

 _-Mark"_

With a small sigh, he set down the weather worn quill down and blew on the pages he wrote on so the ink would dry faster. Once that was done, the thick tome that was known as 'Mark's Journal' was shut for the day with an audible 'SMACK!' The writer got out of the chair he had been sitting on and relit the candles that had gone out while he was lost in his thoughts and writings.

Once everything was brought into the light again, his form was revealed to any that entered, though currently it was only the rooms lone occupant and the reflection that was cast into the full length mirror he now was looking at. He had wavy dark blue hair that went down to his neck and tired, drooping eyes with jade green pupils stared back at him showing a lack of sleep in recent times. His ears, pointed and serrated flickered slightly as he picked up the noise of someone walking towards his room.

 _ ***KNOCK, KNOCK***_

With how thick the doors on the Northern Fortress were due to its construction to be a last stand for its original occupants, the noise echoed far louder than it had any right to.

"Mark?" A mature, female voice called out to the young man inside. "It is time for Master Corrin's training session with Crown Prince Xander. We have to join them, as it is our sworn duty."

Mark tilted his head slightly in thought, mentally counting the days that had passed and realized that today was indeed the day that Lord Corrin was to face Prince Xander in their monthly mock combat session. That also meant…

"Prince Leo also wants you to join him in the sitting room later. Apparently he has another 'issue' he wants you to look at." The mature voice continued on.

"Yeah that sounds like Leo." Mark muttered to himself before scratching the back of his head. Whenever the Crown Prince visited his Lord, the third Prince and the first and second Princesses also came by. Princesses Camilla and Elise were…mostly gentle souls and he used the word gentle liberally. Leo, on the other hand, was rather straightforward if a bit contemptuous towards the others in trying to act older than he was but falling far short of that goal. His pride couldn't take the fact that Mark had somehow beaten him time and time again in games like chess and mock wars. So each time Leo visited, a game was issued and he would win.

"I'll be right there Flora. Thank you for the reminder." Mark eventually responded before getting away from his train of jumbled thoughts. Taking one last look at the mirror, he gave a smile to his tired looking reflection and began to put on his clothes, having written and paced in naught but his underthings. It didn't take long for him to get dressed and placing his coat on as usual. He looked at the purple eyes stitched on the side fondly, despite the fact that it creeped everyone else out.

Dusk Dragon above he had been asked so many times what the coat represented and whether or not he wanted a tailor to make it more fitting on him, since even after two years of hard labor and a minor final growth spurt, it still lingered on the ground whenever he walked. No answer could ever be given since like everything else, he couldn't remember who gave it to him or what it represented. Though he could say without a doubt that it was a nostalgic coat that always made him feel warm and safe whenever he wore it.

Satisfied that he was properly dressed, he grabbed his well-worn book of tactics, a spell book from his random stack of them that was close at hand and exited the room where Flora was rigidly waiting for him. He gave her a slight bow of apology that she accepted with a tiny upturn of her lips before they wordlessly began ascending the numerous staircases that made up the Northern Fortress. It was a climb that would surely wind any would-be invaders as it reached a challenging fifty or so stories high. It was enough that one could see the clouds quite clearly above them, yet still not high enough to touch them. Though for Mark and the others that lived in the castle, it was nothing more than a brisk morning walk.

The sound of two objects smacking against each other soon filled their ears, along with the grunts and growls of battle as they reached the door that lead to the roof. The sight that had greeted them was seeing Lord Corrin, dressed up in his armor, sparring with wooden swords against a man slightly older than he. A small, black circlet on his head prevented his dark blonde hair from getting in his eyes while the rest fell around his head in waves. His face was chiseled stone, his jaw square like a brick and the rest of him equally built tough but hidden behind a combination of formal wear and chainmail underneath that belied his true figure. The opponent was the Crown Prince of Nohr and Lord Corrin's elder brother, Alexander 'Xander' Marx Galaronis.

Mark and Flora had come at the end of the spar, watching as their Lord overextended himself in a high, sweeping strike that Xander immediately and mercilessly took advantage of. With a quick flourish of his own wooden sword, the Crown Prince struck Corrin at the wrists and disarmed him before sweeping his legs out from under him and placing the wooden swords point at his neck, the formal show of victory.

Though Corrin sighed, it was nothing new to any of them. Xander was an experienced battlefield commander having lead Nohr's mightiest light cavalry brigade, the 1st Scions, into battle time and time again. He had plenty of time to find and perfect his styles fighting to the death with multiple Hoshidan opponents of all varieties. On the other hand, all Corrin had was Gunter and Mark himself to train him whenever Xander was not around and build his form from the ground up however they could.

The immediate difference showed between them but there was no hard feelings on either side. Xander let his sword arm drop to his waist and offered his free hand to Corrin, who took it and was lifted up with ease.

"You're improving each and every time we spar, Little Prince. This time you lasted a whole ten minutes. Though in your haste to strike the opening I purposefully left you, it became your undoing." Xander said to Corrin, his voice imposing, but not harsh.

Mark looked at his Lord, who only gave a sheepish grin at the rather amateur mistake he made several times. "Yes, well if I see a way to end a battle quickly, I do try to take it. Though thanks to Mark's tutelage, I do see several weak spots of your own but was unable to exploit in time." It was an honest critique between them both, but Corrin's made Xander raise an eyebrow. "Really now? Well, let's try it then with live steel. Mark, please come and help show my little brother these 'openings' you have found."

With a quick snap of his fingers Jakob appeared, immaculately dressed as always with not a single silver hair strand out of place. In his hands was a black longsword wrapped carefully in velvet silk so as to not scratch the blade. No matter how many times he had seen the blade before, Mark had to marvel at how someone could make a sword out of black metal, then make it viable to hold immense magical power. He had been told it was carved out of the Dusk Dragons fang itself and the dark energy that was held within it was the gift the dragon gave to the wielder.

When Xander used it in battle, it released a beam of black magical energy that chases down an opponent with frightening speed and tracking capabilities before running them through. The blade is considered one of the two divine weapons of Nohr and its name is Siegfried.

Only those that were to be the future King of Nohr was given the honor of wielding it into battle and ever since he had taken it, Xander had yet to lose a single battle unless he went up against High Prince Ryouma of Hoshido. Those clashes ended in ties and a far too high body count to make the battle worthwhile to either side.

Compared to that magnificence that sang each time Xander experimentally swung the blade, the steel sword that Mark pulled out the sheath presented to him was less than impressive. Still, it served its purpose in battle as Xander smirked at him, which caused Mark to sigh internally. It was the curse of his being a 'savant' that he was able to also master every weapon he touched with little to no effort at all.

Xander had yet to win against him once in a spar and only Gunter could match him blow for blow or even beat him altogether in a full out fight. Though while most took it as a blow to their pride, Xander could only see improvements in himself that would allow him to be a better leader.

"Alright. While I did not see all of your battle with Lord Corrin, I think I know enough of his fighting style to help the both of you with this." Mark called out to Xander as he took up the blade stance Corrin had been in earlier. Only unlike Corrin's own style, Mark had no discernable opening that Xander could find himself taking advantage of. Both feet were apart at proper length, his off sword hand ready to catch or counter any tricks Xander might do and a level look that did not stray from his eyes for a moment.

This was the look of a master swordsman and it was something that Xander showed equal respect for by getting into his true and proper stance when off horseback, wielding Siegfried with both hands. Jakob stood between the two and raised one hand in the air, the universal ready signal. At the silent count of three, he lowered it in a chopping motion and both swordsmen blurred into action.

' _High guard feint, likely to expect me to go for legs first as it is the weakness for most swordsmen that ride cavalry. Go for the wrists first, attempt to disarm before kicking his waist while his guard is focused on pushing back.'_ Mark thought to himself as he and Xander swung their blades at one another.

Waiting for his opportune moment, he did a feint of going for a low swing with his right arm as Xander left a fake high guard and tried to outplay the younger opponent.

"You're wide open!" The Crown Prince shouted as he quickly swung his blade down in a thrust, only to widen his eyes in surprise as Siegfried was easily parried by Mark, who had tossed the steel sword up into the free hand that he had left in the air as the feint. It was now tightly gripped in his hand and went for Xander's wrists, which would have cut the tendons down to the bone and forever crippled him if he hadn't jumped back in time.

It was exactly what Mark wanted and using Corrin's fleet-of-foot style, sped his way into Xander's now truly open guard and forced him onto the defensive by shoving his boot directly into his sternum, knocking the wind out of the older man. Corrin himself was in awe of how smoothly Mark transitioned from one move to the next. There was no wasted movement, no hesitation in thought and more importantly no mercy being shown in giving someone a chance to recover. To the outside observer, it almost felt as if Mark was treating Xander like a child playing soldier as Xander himself did to Corrin.

Xander for his part was doing everything he could to try and gain back any sort of leverage but for the life of him he just could not see any. It was indeed quite a glaring flaw in his fighting style it seemed and he would rectify it quickly as if this had been a battle against High Prince Ryouma he would have already been gutted and left to die on the battlefield.

With a roar of anger coming out of his lips he activated Siegfried out of sheer frustration. The black blade immediately came to life with arcane energy before his eyes widened, realizing that this 'show' suddenly became more intense than initially planned. Something that everyone quickly realized when they saw the flare-up of energy that was coming out of the sword.

He did his best to reign the energy back in, but it was far too late to stop the beam of energy that shot out of his sword and went straight for Mark's heart. It was a credit to whomever had trained the amnesiac that he did not show any sign of worry at this new development but disengaged Xander so he could confront this new threat.

Everyone was dumbfounded as Mark seemed to parry the black energy perfectly each and every time it weaved around him to strike at some vital area with a common blade. Though no matter how skilled he was, there was nothing he could do when it came to a magical attack hitting a non-magical weapon. Something had to give and in this case it was the sword. Every strike chipped and wore it down until it finally snapped when Mark slammed it upwards in one final parry. This also proved to be the last bit of time he needed to buy for the magical beam to finally run out of power and dissipate.

Letting out a sigh of relief, Mark looked over at Xander with one eyebrow raised. To his credit, Xander had the good grace to look embarrassed and slightly flushed over attempted homicide in getting carried away.

"I think I've seen enough." Corrin announced as he stepped in, more so to keep the two from going at one another again. "Mark, thank you for going over this and Xander, please try to not do that again. You gave me and Felicia heart troubles when that happened."

Xander nodded and waved for Flora to come over to them. During their spar, Gunther had come up and handed her two towels and cups of water that she passed to the warriors. After cleaning up and hydrating, Xander looked at Corrin and was quiet for a few moments before nodding to himself.

"Alright Little Prince. It has been almost fourteen winters since you have been trained in the ways of the Nohrian art of war. I think now is the time to put up one final test. Father has announced that he is growing weary of waiting for you to improve and wanted me to test you myself in one battle to see if you are worthy to leave the Fortress and take your rightful place as the Second Prince of Nohr. Corrin Anankias Galaronis, I hereby challenge you to a duel of honor. Face me in live combat and prove your worth to your Kingdom and its people!" Xander announced to the shock and awe of everyone around him.

Corrin gaped at him like a fish out of water before his political training kicked in and he composed himself like the Prince he was. "I, Corrin Anakias Galaronis, do hereby accept this duel. As the challenged, I have the right to dictate terms. All I ask is that you fight with the honor and dignity that your station befits you, Crown Prince Alexander Marx Galaronis."

Xander gave Corrin a proud stare and a large smirk as Jakob handed his Lord a new steel sword that he took up in his hand. Before taking up their places on opposite ends of the arena, they struck the flat of their blades against one another. It was a show of honor and respect for the opponent.

Mark looked on impassively, taking note that Corrin seemed to emulate what he was doing fairly well. The Second Prince had in him something that the rigid Xander and the logical Leo did not have. Adaptability and being able to quickly make snap judgements when the pressure was truly placed on him. That was the reason that he believed so highly in Corrin's battle prowess. For as much as Mark was a Savant, Corrin was just as much a genius in learning how to use whatever was given to him. It showed in the corrected stance Mark himself showed to Corrin that he now took up as he and Xander began to duel.

As steel clanged and shouts raged from both combatants, he noticed Felicia scrunching the side of her dress hard, knuckles white from worry and anxiety but her face was as cold as the Ice Tribe she was raised in. He wasn't stupid, he had seen the looks she gave Corrin and how she lingered her touches on him moments longer than what protocol dictated.

She was a woman in love and if it wasn't for her situation in being a political hostage, he would think she and Corrin would make a lovely couple. Alas, the world was not so kind and she was stuck on the sidelines, forever in his shadow. That was fine for her as she only wanted Corrin to be happy, as did he and Jakob. Flora…she was someone he had to keep a better eye on. Lilith and Gunther were as loyal as Jakob was.

His musing were brought to a halt as Corrin let out a mangled growl. Eyes snapping forward, he saw a large gash running across his steel plated armor, a clean blow from Siegfried. Xander muttered a few words of apology and made up for it by taking in a deep breath and placing his hand against the ground. Immediately, a green circle, full of archaic wording and symbols flowed around him.

Jakob had explained that it was the telltale glow of a 'Dragon Vein'; places where energy was highly concentrated from the earth's natural flow of it and that those who had the blood of the Dusk or Dawn dragon could freely manipulate them. Though just like anything else, abusing them had its consequences as well. It took only seconds for the energy to spring up and it vanished just as quickly, but a small breeze was left behind, along with a small sparkling bit of tile.

"Corrin, I have activated the Dragon Vein. It has healing properties that will allow you to seal that injury. Bathe in its energy and come at me again."

' _Even with that healing breeze, it does not stop the pain nor restore the stamina spent in battle. All it will do is make sure he doesn't bleed or get diseased from having an open wound. Though Jakob had a heal staff at the ready, as did Flora so it was mostly for naught anyways. Lord Corrin will have to settle it with the next exchange of blows.'_ Mark mused as he took stock of the new developments.

Corrin stood in the Dragons Vein and let the soothing wind heal his wound and seal it up before the magic in it vanished. Feeling slightly refreshed, he took up his sword and continued the fight. It took only two exchanges for him to realize that he had to end it fast.

' _Think Corrin, think! What would Mark do?!'_ he thought desperately as he fended off several very vicious strikes from Xander's blade that began to chip his own from the repeated strikes.

Pushing himself back, Corrin finally found the answer he was searching for and as his eyes narrowed, he knew what he had to do to complete the insane stunt he was about to do.

It was all Mark could do to not burst out in laughter when he saw his Lord looking so focused. It seemed like he finally found the major weakness to Xander's near unstoppable offense.

Xander himself took pause when he noticed Corrin going down on all fours in a near sprinting pose. _'Hmm…I bet he plans on trying to take me on from the sides again. Sorry Little Prince, but this battle is mine!'_ he thought to himself and with good reason as it was a tactic Corrin tested constantly against him with no results.

On the mental count of three Corrin sped off, leaving a near blur in his wake as he charged Xander. Though the Crown Prince was ready as ever, his sword held in a mid-guard stance with his arms firmly tucked at his sides with his elbows locked in place.

"You're too slow!" he roared as Siegfried was swung in a heavy sweeping blow that would normally have knocked Corrin for a loop and out of the ring.

That was, IF it had been Corrin's plan to charge him from the start.

With an impressive display of flexibility, Corrin jumped just as Xander began his slash. Being so low to the ground helped to cover what he was about to do and when Xander committed to his strike, Corrin landed on the flat of Siegfried's blade and jumped again with his whole body weight being put into the blow.

"This ends NOW!"

All onlookers were shocked as Corrin struck a very powerful, very clean blow on Xander that left a very large and nasty gash in his armor while the Crown Prince nearly flew out of the arena. Thankfully he landed safely out of bounds as a quick Elwind spell cast by Mark made sure to break what would have been a nasty fall.

Though out of everyone, it was Xander himself who was the most proud of what had happened. He had underestimated Corrin to his own disadvantage and he took what was normally seen as a weakness when constantly attacking the same areas over and over again into a new move that won him the match.

' _You have grown so strong Little Prince…'_ he thought with pride swelling in his chest as Jakob helped him up.

"As I have landed out of bounds, the match is now over. Corrin Anakias Galaronis, you are the winner and as such you are to report to his Majesty King Garon Krakions Galaronis himself in the throne room in two weeks' time. Congratulations Little Prince. You have earned your freedom at last." Xander declared with his head held high. If he were capable of doing so, he would have shed a tear. Alas, he was not in the privacy of his room so he settled for a happy smile on his lips.

When he finished speaking, Felicia and Mark rushed over to Corrin, who was on his hands and knees, gasping for air from going into two right battles at once. It wasn't easy going from what was originally a spar to full contact fighting with no holds barred. Though he managed and finally, for the first time in fourteen years, he bested Xander in an honorable duel.

If he hadn't been so tired, he would have cheered. Felicia and Mark did all of that for him with their congratulations and smiles. It warmed his heart to see his friends so happy with his accomplishment, even more so than he was! Though it took a few minutes, the other half of Xander's words finally sunk in, causing Corrin to catch his third breath as he finally realized he could leave this forsaken fortress! Yes it would have been nice place to spend a few quiet days in, but fourteen years had taken its toll on his sanity and the prolonged cabin fever would finally stop nagging at him every few steps.

That was when the sound of clapping reached everyone's ears and they turned around to see the source. It belonged to not the other servants or Xander himself, but rather a beautiful, voluptuous older woman. Her long, purple locks fell down all the way to her posterior and her armor, while fully functional, would have most cry out for it being so scandalous as there was nothing hiding her lower half save what looked to be a piece of undergarments and her boots. Her lips, like her body, were also plump, full and luscious and currently upturned into a smile as she continued to clap.

She was the First Princess of Nohr, Camilla Regina Galaronis. The head of the 4th Airborne Malig Knight Company otherwise known as "The Flying Death" to allies and "Garon's Aerial Hit-men" to enemies. Her role in the army is to smash and grab or destroy. Her and her personal troops would swoop down, rain on enemies magic or steel and fly off before others could join the fight. Outside of battle, she was considered to be Nohr's greatest beauty bar none and the currently most eligible bachelorette that left a long trail of broken hearts behind after.

"Oh my sweet, sweet Corrin, did that mean old Xander hurt you badly?" She asked, propping one hand under her chin as a pout come onto her lips. "Should I go over there and…kiss it better?" While the question was innocent enough, the way she said it sent shivers down Corrin and Mark's spines while Felicia pouted in return and held onto Corrin a little closer. An act of defiance that made Camilla's pout turn into a small smile.

The reason why Camilla was such an eligible bachelorette…was that she was a sis-con of the highest degree, doting over Corrin with such affection and passion that one might mistake much of her actions as that of a lovesick girl wanting to be with the boy of her dreams. Mark was not spared her 'affections' either and as he was the more vulnerable target, he found himself scooped up into the older and taller woman's arms and quickly had his face buried into her bosom.

"Oh dearest Mark, I couldn't forget you as well! I saw from the entryway as Xander fired that blast at you. My heart nearly stopped when your blade broke but I am SO glad you are well." She cooed while Mark himself flailed his arms as he found himself in both a personal heaven and private hell. Try as he might, he had no leverage and Camilla's strength belied that of her frame and a tight hold kept him still under another person shot forth from the stairway and plowed into Corrin.

The newest intruder almost looked like a young girl at first glance. No older than fourteen some would argue. Those with keener eyes however could spot the growing curves and womanly assets that a normal fourteen year old would not have. "Big Brother! You did it!" she cheered. Her hair was done up into two ringlet pigtails with a purple stripe going down across them. She was dressed in a 'cute' black outfit filled with frills and pink ribbons.

Her name was Elise Sofia Galaronis, Second Princess of Nohr at seven and ten years of age. She was, bar none, the one all would agree to be considered Nohr's greatest treasure. Always bright and cheerful, she went to help the poor and downtrodden weekly as her situation allowed for it. Otherwise she could be found on the battlefield like the rest of her siblings, keeping things steady in the rear lines with her unit, the combat medics, also known as "Blooming Flowers" due to her M.O. of making crowns of flowers to place on patient's heads and raise morale to those that would otherwise break under the pressure. She too loved her siblings and Corrin most of all due to his situation of being stuck in the Fortress day in and day out.

"Here, let me close this properly." Elise offered as she took out her heal staff, just an ordinary rod rather than her customized ones since nothing bad ever happened at the Fortress, and slowly began to seal his wounds shut, leaving him with a large sigh of relief.

As the two sisters doted on the Prince and his retainer, Xander cleared his throat to remind them that he was still there. "Camilla, Elise, do I not get a greeting as well? Also, Camilla let the poor boy go, he is starting to go blue the face." He asked as he waved at poor Mark, who had stopped flailing as oxygen deprivation was consuming him.

"Oh dear, too much stimulation." Camilla mused as she let him go and watched with amusement as he flopped to the floor almost as if he was drunk.

"Camilla!" Elise reprimanded as she used her heal staff on Mark as well, getting some color back into his face as his breathing stabilized.

Still being ignored, Xander took it in stride and accepted the towel Jakob handed him. "Thank you Jakob. You are truly the best in Nohr for being a butler."

Jakob bowed low at the compliment. "Nonsense. I only do as the good butler does and tidy up." He responded.

A new voice joined in. "Well, well, what have I wandered into now? Our little brother having the devil's own luck and pulling off a win against Xander himself? Pigs must be flying."

Looking at the stairway, a young blonde haired man stepped out. Unlike the others, he was dressed more formally than the rest. An air of knowledge seemed to almost permeate around him, much like how his clothes reflected a more scholarly nature, being a mixture of lighter armor and silk clothing. His short hair and everything else about him was perfect and straight. He was the Third Prince of Nohr, Leon Leonidas Galaronis.

He was the up and coming star of Nohr with in depth knowledge of politics, geography and math…everything that could be used in battle he studied in depth. It made him perfect to head the 9th Division, the Black Moons. If Camilla's squad was considered the hit-men from the sky, the Black Moon division were just the straight up assassins who, with Leon's insatiable thirst for knowledge of everything from backroom politics to landscapes from well-worn maps, helped them pull off many otherwise unthinkable assignments. He was well on his way to being Nohr's new senior war tactician…at least until Mark came along and showed just how far he had to go. Since then he would challenge Mark to strategic duels whenever he visited and he knew today would be no different.

These people were the ones Corrin grew up with, loved and called his family. Though such a tease against their eldest brother couldn't go without some comeuppance and Corrin knew just the one as he calmly petted Elise's head as if she were the family pet. "Well Leon, you do know your collar is inside out again correct?"

A quick glance to Leon's clothing showed that Corrin was correct and the blondes face turned a rather interesting shade of red as he turned around and attempted to fiddle with it, hard as it was with his armor over it. "Blast it all! This is why I hate having to wake up so early in the mornings!"

Though he tried to be quiet, in his flustered state everything could be heard by the others and the family laughed together as one.

Eventually the laughter died down and everyone got their bearings together so they could celebrate Corrin's victory. Xander had ordered a grand feast to be thrown so that when they left to go to the Capital the next day, it would be with smiles and full stomachs.

Jakob, Flora and Lilith were joined by Camilla and Elise in the kitchen as they cooked and baked multiple courses fit for royals of their stature. The latter two were told multiple times that they did not have to do such things, but the Princesses' would have none of it. This was one of the few times they could show off something not involving their battle skills to their beloved brother and they would take it.

While that happened, the rest of the royals, plus Mark, Felicia and Gunther were in the library which was one of the most inviting rooms in the fortress with lots of tables and chairs situated next to a warm and cozy fireplace and a bear skinned rug, hunted and captured by Gunther himself. One could still see the surprise in the beasts eyes when they entered, no doubt having not expected the old man to best it.

Currently they were poured over a map with many small figurines on it, carved into exquisite detail knights, mercenaries, outlaws, dark mages…all the Norhian units were there while little white stones also littered the map to represent Hoshidan forces.

"Alright Mr. Genius Tactician, I've poured over all the old tomes on past battles between our countries and this was one considered unwinnable to Nohr. We were outmanned, outdone in supplies and with no terrain advantage. Not even the weather could be blamed as it was perfectly sunny too. It was a rout from start to finish. See if you can win this." Leon challenged.

As Mark had predicted earlier, Leon's pride would not allow him to have any visit go by without trying to get at least ONE win out of their strategy meetings. With a sigh that spoke of long suffering, he did as he was asked and looked over the map and could not help but wince underneath his hood.

"If I was the Commander of the army and saw this, I would have had whoever tried to lead this battle drawn and quartered so the world would be down one less idiot who thinks thicker blood means assured victory." He said with pure steel in his voice. Senseless death was something he abhorred with a vengeance and told Leon this multiple times during their sessions.

"Hah, ironically enough that IS what happened to him. Only the Hoshidan's did it when he sullied their honor by trying to sell out his country after being captured and then attempting to run away afterwards. Nohr actually sent them a gift basket a few weeks afterwards when word reached them." Leon replied, remembering those few paragraphs and laughing at the absurdity of it all.

"Well, sadly a LOT of lives are going to be lost but this isn't impossible for sure." Mark noted after a few more minutes of observance, causing Leon to gape at him like a fish and demand just how he could do this when he himself spent several days looking at it from all angles and not finding a single path that lead to victory, pyrrhic or not.

That was when Mark smirked and tapped several spots on the map that Leon had initially never considered before. The neighboring villages were spread out all over the place and according to his earlier words, none of them could evacuate in time.

"This is the answer. When you're outmanned and have bad territory, turn to the common people. They were all neutral in this conflict, but the right words and whispers could have turned them into a rather hostile box of death for any Hoshidan that entered." Mark told them as he pushed several stones into a killbox with several pieces marked with Outlaws and Mercenaries covering each and every village.

"I have bribed each village with not having to pay the yearly fiefdom taxes expected of them and keep all of their harvest for the winter in exchange for shelter and silence. In return, Nohr now has a secure setup so whenever any Hoshidan steps into the village, they have eyes and ears all over the place. After all, the one thing everybody forgets when it comes to war is that the peasants are easy to forget, but they find it quite hard to forgive those that take away their lifestyle. Dangle the carrot in front of them and they'll fall in line easily rather than if you waved the stick around." It was a rather painfully direct way of coercion, however and not one without great consequence. To excuse just one, let alone three villages of their taxes would deprive Nohr of their already scarce resources. Yet victory above everything else was expected of them, so it was a necessary evil.

Leon sighed and conceded that once more, Mark seemed to be able to pull off impossible odds. The only comfort that he took from this is that even he couldn't do so without sacrificing some troops to do so, rather than the many times he won without a single unit falling in battle. "If you keep these kinds of strategies up I might be out of a job when Father comes looking for a new tactician. I heard he is rather cross with Iago over some blunder the other day with Hoshidan troops making it across the border."

Mark dutifully cleaned up the table and began to put away the pieces and maps. "You are too kind, but I doubt a nameless nobody like me could ever hope to pull off what you can. After all, you were the one to inherit Brynhildr instead of me." He pointed out to the Third Prince, who smiled at how humble the other teen was being.

Tucked away in Leon's armor was the second of Nohr's Regalia: The Book of Constructs, Brynhildr. Named after a war maiden of old, it was said to be made from the Dusk Dragon's heart as it died, the pages and words filled with its blood and making so that instead of destroying, it could bring life through creation. Though in Leon's hands, it was still quite the tool of magical destruction. Vines would snap up and hold people down for others to execute, or grow sharp roots that would pierce a person's heart before they knew what happened. Mark remembered hearing that one time Leon even grew an entire tree on top of someone!

While it didn't have the quiet majesty that Siegfried had, Brynhildr was still not something to scoff at.

As the talk died down, everyone took the time to appreciate the last bits of peace and quiet that they would have before the hustle and bustle of city and castle politics would soon enter their lives once again, only this time Corrin would be actively participating as well. It was why Mark and Jakob drilled court politics and etiquette into their Lord night and day for years. They last thing they wanted was for their Lord's trip to be short-lived due to upsetting some noble or another by being ignorant to what was going on.

Eventually, Felicia came and summoned everyone to the dining hall, where the grand feast was upon them. Roasted Duck seared just right with sauce dripping from the breast, fluffy and buttery biscuits just waiting to be eaten and even a tray of cookies piled on high awaited them with goblets filled by the finest wine that the Northern Fortress could offer. Camilla and Elise were already waiting, having helped to cook all of the wonderful food.

As everyone sat down and placed their napkins into their proper places, Xander took the time to hold up his goblet and speak. "I propose a toast. To the many years and fond memories that the Northern Fortress has brought us. A wonderful brother, loyal retainers and joys to last a lifetime! To Corrin!" he shouted, words echoing across the halls and filling it with a festive energy it had not seen in a long time.

It was an energy that everyone was glad to bring with them. "For Corrin!" The rest shouted, while Corrin was just embarrassed and red faced that everyone was doing this just for him, causing the others to laugh. From there, food and drink were shared equally amongst royals and servants and all had a good time. The hours quickly passed and soon it was time for everyone to tuck in, though three remained awake deep into the night.

On the roof where they had all met years ago, Mark, Corrin and Felicia laid down on a blanket that Felicia had brought with her (and not torn for once!) while staring at the clouded sky.

"It's a shame that it isn't clear, like it was on that night. I think you would have loved to see the stars." Corrin said to Mark.

Mark himself gave a small smile that could be seen through his hood. "Yes, but I wouldn't trade any moments spent for the world. You had every reason to just kill me but instead you took me in. You gave me an identity when I had none, a job when I had no skills in the domestic area and allowed me the honor of having enough trust to train you both in and out of battle. This…everything you've done for me is irreplaceable. You as well Felicia. Your kindness helped whenever I was at my worst when my lack of memories began to haunt me."

Felicia giggled slightly at the heartfelt confession. "You're welcome, Mark. Don't sell yourself short though, you helped us in return. You kept Gunter in great shape by keeping him on his toes. You helped Leon discover better ways of creating battle strategies. You improved Lord Corrin's swordplay to where he could keep up with Xander of all people! Even if you don't get along well with Flora or Lilith, at least you managed to earn their respect…in fact, I think you've gained everyone's respect and trust, despite all the mistrust around you from the beginning."

Mark winced slightly at remembering the more unpleasant memories of when he first arrived. Felicia had downplayed what had happened…a lot. After all, a mysterious man appearing out of nowhere on the roof of Nohr's most isolated fortress where the Second Prince dwelled? That was grounds for immediate execution or torture in thinking he could have been a spy, but Corrin would have none of it. Though it didn't mean that he got off the hook completely. Still, time and patience on both ends began to erode that paranoia and instead gave them a close bond that everyone could hold near and dear to their hearts.

"Well, sadly I think it's time for us to go to sleep ourselves. I'm sure 'Joker' is about to do his nightly patrol and you know how he gets when we're out of bed after lights out." Corrin announced and everyone quickly got up and headed downstairs, though Corrin lingered for a few moments behind everyone else and looked back at the sky one last time.

' _I have to wonder…if that star that came crashing down that night was Mark…did those other three shooting stars contain people from the heavens as well?'_ he thought to himself. It was a stray, almost laughable thought to have after everything that had happened, but the nagging feeling in his mind told him that his question would be answered sooner or later be it for better or for worse.

Though for now, he had some sleep to catch up on.

 _Byakuya (Hoshido to Nohrians), Castle Shirasagi_

On the other side of the nation, in the prospering Kingdom of Byakuya the clear, night filled sky kept several people awake as well. Three people met at the castle pond, an area that was so serene that even the most troubled of hearts could find some form of peace.

At least…most could find their worries tucked away.

"Have ya heard anything?" a rough, gritty voice asked.

"No. I've done patrols all over the nation, searched high and low and even went into the worst of bars but nothing." A youthful voice responded.

"W-well…I hate to be the one to say it, but we have e-even worse news." The third, shy voice responded.

"How can it be any worse than losin' four of our friends to this…this THING?!" The gruff voice demanded.

"Easy. No need to shout at her. Let's just hear the news and pass it along to the Lords or the…the Tactician." The youthful voice responded, though it faltered and almost had to spat out the last two words.

"I-I know it's hard, but please, not everyone can be as brilliant as those two and you know it." The shy voice pleaded before giving a small sigh.

"Well, let's get it over with. Spill." The gruff voice piped up.

"T-the patrol that was done by Suzukaze…the one that had Lady Rinkah o-of the Fire Tribe. It…they were a-ambushed and captured in Anya. The messenger m-managed to at least fill us in on that much b-before he died of his injuries. It was consistent with Beruka of the Black Axe." The shy voice reported.

All three winced slightly at that name. Beruka was the highly competent and deadly assassin and second in command to their enemy, Princess Camilla. To be caught by her would almost guarantee that a person would not be going home and doomed to rot away on Anya soil (known as Nohr by their neighboring countries).

"Did he report anything else?" The youthful voice asked.

"Nothing other than that almost the entire Royal Family of Anya was seen heading north of their Capital for something." The shy voice responded.

"Great. Just great. That prick of a ninja is gonna' be pissed when he finds out." The gruff voice groaned.

"Hey, at least you don't have to work with him. I do." The youthful voice argued, but the sigh that was given at the end suggested a similar amount of frustration.

"I…I miss everyone and everything back home. W-we should be back there by now. Laughing, having fun and going on silly little trips. It's been two years. TWO. YEARS. What happened to us? To them?" The shy voice asked in pure misery.

"It's all that damn witch and the dragon's fault. Don't blame yerself for anything." The gruff voice tried to cheer up the shy voice.

"I know he's alive. They all are. They survived one dragon already. A second one won't be anything new, sacred weapon or not." The youthful voice responded, steel being heard in that declaration.

"I-it doesn't make it any easier though…I know you liked him. I did too…" The shy voice meekly brought up.

"Yeah…we did. We even got into an argument a few days before we left over who would confess to him first. It would have been amusing seeing two beautiful ladies like us getting him to stumble like a gaping fish when we were going to ask him to marry one of us." The youthful voice reminisced.

"Well, sorry to break up the pity party here but we gotta mosey. Kagerou's shift is about to start and you know how nosy she can be, 'specially when Orochi is around too. She finished those readings in town the other day and came back earlier this evening." The gruff voice brought up, causing all three to shiver slightly.

"Yeah. Well, I call this meeting adjourned. Same time next week if we can all make it." The youthful voice called out to the other two as they went their separate ways.

"For the last time, we are NOT part of your dang Cabal!" the gruff voice shouted before the pond was once more, undisturbed.

Or so they thought, as a maiden in white stepped out from behind the lone tree that was grown with care near the pond.

 _Northern Fortress, Next Day_

As the dawn broke (or as close as it could get with the eternally cloudy sky that hovered over Nohr), the traveling party made their final preparations to return to their true home.

Camilla had taken off a little earlier than the rest to scout around and to spread her pet wyvern Mariza's wings slightly. Leon, Elise and Xander were already on their warhorses and looking out towards the dreary sky.

"Five silver says that his butt will fall asleep halfway through the trip." Leon suddenly said to the others. Elise giggled and Xander rolled his eyes at the inane bet of how badly Corrin's first long-trek horse ride would be.

"I'll take it and raise you ten that it'll only be a third of the way!" Elise declared as she took a quick count to her personal money-bag that she kept in her dress to make sure she had the proper amount she was betting.

"I swear, you two are incorrigible." Xander sighed before looking at them both. "One Gold Coin and it'll be two-thirds of the trip completed."

Elise and Leon looked at each other with a grin on their faces. Never let it be said that Xander didn't have SOME form of fun hidden inside of him.

"Hey, everything is ready on our end!" Corrin's voice called out and everyone turned around to greet him.

By his side were Gunter, Mark and Felicia. The former two were also on warhorses of their own though Mark's looked a little skittish just having him on. Felicia was in the driver's seat of a carriage containing supplies that they would take into the Castle as tribute to Lord Garon and to help spread amongst the populace at Corrin and Elise's insistence that they give something back for Nohr giving them a home for almost fifteen years.

Gunter himself was giving out instructions to the remaining three servants. "We shouldn't be more than about two to three weeks before Garon makes his final decision for where Lord Corrin will be placed in the army. Jakob, Flora and Lilith, I expect this place to be cared for as if Corrin never left until we send for you. Hopefully all will go well."

The three servants bowed low, though Flora for once looked almost giddy at the thought of being able to spend time alone with Jakob. Lilith never showed interest in anyone and often kept to herself so the lighter blue haired girl knew she didn't have anyone standing in the way of love!

Felicia sighed as she saw the look on her sister's face. It was the same one she would pull whenever she had a moment alone with Corrin. Though hopefully Flora's attempts at love would be better off than her own impossible attempt. She wasn't as naïve or stupid as she let on. If it wasn't for Garon stripping them of their titles as Maidens of the Ice Tribe, Felicia knew she would have had a very good chance of wedding Corrin to stabilize an already shaky alliance made worse by their being forced to become maids. She didn't mind her fate in the slightest, but Flora was always the more patriotic of the two.

So seeing her be not so serious for once just put a smile on her face.

Once everything was ready, the small party set forth on their path to Castle Krakenburg. It would be a slow trip for sure, but it would also be one that all knew would change the course of Nohr and Hoshido's war for good. Corrin had an honest and earnest charisma that would easily see him through many a battle and the whole nation could one day be at his side. At least, it was what Xander would hope someday happen after he took up the throne. He had plans for everything and he wanted all of his family and their retainers to be a part of it.

Speaking of, the crown prince winced at remembering that he left those two unsupervised at making a rather impromptu visit as soon as their Father allowed it. His more stable retainer Laslow he was not worried about. At most, he would hear of failed flirting attempts with several maidens in the capital or maybe some broken glass or cups being flung at him. It was his other retainer, Peri that he was more worried about. He told her to curb the more…quirky aspects of her nature but he fully expected there to be lots of paperwork over servants that were unlucky enough to pass by her when there were no other guards around.

He wanted Corrin to see all the retainers at their best. Laslow and Peri, Beruka and Selena, Odin and Zero and Arthur and Effie. More importantly, he wanted Mark to meet them and see if some memory might be jogged. It wasn't that he didn't trust the younger man that his little brother chose to be his official retainer but he didn't trust the circumstances surrounding him.

As Crown Prince, he was to make sure there was absolutely nothing damning about the mysterious teen that suddenly found himself pushed into their lives. For all anyone knew, he could be a sleeper agent sent to kill all of them in their sleep the moment that he was in the castle.

Even if Leon's magic confirmed his story of amnesia, the lingering doubts in Xander's mind would not be put to rest until he could finally solve the enigma that was Mark.

He just prayed that it wouldn't take someone's death to do so.

His muse was broken when he heard someone calling out to him. Looking up, he saw that he had fallen behind the rest of the others and that Corrin was asking him to come back up front.

It was with a smile that Xander pushed his horse forward and caught up with everyone just as Camilla came back and announced that there were no ambushes or anything set up along the road.

So for at least a few more days, he could put this silly little stray thought from his mind and just enjoy some more quality time with his family.

For it was a creed in Nohr that "Bonds between brothers shall overcome trials set by Blood." While some called it empty army propaganda meant to endorse tighter friendships between soldiers of all walks of life, Xander chose to be the one that was a shining example of it, accepting what many thought was a commoner and a 'freak' into his service as retainers and showed how skill was more important than their blood.

That was the Nohr Xander wanted Corrin to see, to grow up in and there would be hell to pay if anyone tried to break apart the bonds that they had built through many different trials set upon them during the darkest times of Nohr's history.

"So, what was on your mind Big Brother?" Corrin asked as they continued to ride along the trail.

Xander put a smile on his face as he looked forward. "It was nothing Corrin, nothing at all to worry about. Come, let's go to your true home. You've been waiting long enough."

 _A/N: FINALLY! After a good month and a half of agonizing over this chapter it is done! I truly, without a doubt, despise the early chapters because there isn't really much to it. While it characterized the Nohr Royal's, there wasn't much else other than that. I had to put in a LOT of fluff here and I hated every single moment of it. I apologize if this chapter seems extremely disjointed but I wanted to show more to Xander and Mark's thought processes so far Thankfully I can now put this all behind me and get to the real meat of the picture!_

 _Though even with the fluff, you can see that stuff is still happening in Hoshido, which will be explained a bit more in the next chapter. BTW, bad Azura being sneaky sneaky! I also chose to use Zero over Niles because seriously, I have NO idea where the hell 'Niles' came from. Zero is a more awesome and badass name and it'll stay that way. His bi-sexual side will also be shown in this fic, just like Rhajat will have a few lesbian moments of her own before seeing how the other team rolls. Soleil and Nina will have a field day._

 _Also, I have set up a poll on my profile for which version you want to see come first, Birthright or Conquest. Revelations will come, don't doubt that but I want to show a grey side to each nation first. There is darkness in Hoshido just as much as light can be found in Nohr. You just have to look for it!_

 _Finally, I am searching for a beta-reader. The author that did so last time was a one-off thing, so I would appreciate it if anyone could PM me their experience in Beta-Reading and help out with this!_

 _Before I forget, I do NOT own Fire Emblem. It belongs to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and whoever else helps to develop it!_


	3. Chapter 3: Politics, How I Despise Thee!

Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny

Chapter 3: "Politics, how I despise thee!"

" _Looking at things leading up to our arrival at the capital, I have to admit I think it was a good thing that Jakob and I decided to teach Lord Corrin the agonizing art of politicking. It is something both utterly hated yet absolutely needed in any civilized society. Without politics the world would sadly dissolve into anarchy and chaos, no matter how much people would like to think otherwise._

 _The Capital of Nohr, Windmire, was known to be a den of vipers in human form. At least according to the bits and pieces of whispers that I picked up from being around Leon and Xander. They were already making plans of who to have my Lord speak to and who to avoid at any cost. The top of the list seemed to be the senior tactician and royal advisor, Iago. Despite my only being in the Northern Fortress for two years, even I picked up the whispers of just how low that man would go and it honestly frightens me._

 _If the world were a perfect place, politics would be about the betterment of the people. Sadly, it seems to only be a place where the majority of the rich want to get richer while those that try to help the poor are snuffed out or silenced save for Princess Elise, who is too high up in the food chain for them to touch._

 _Should all go well, the worst that we would encounter would be some brownnosers hoping to curry favor quickly or some ladies of nobility looking to secure a place as the wife of the newly announced Second Prince. Though knowing how unlucky things tend to be when Felicia was around, I was expect to have to fight my way out of Nohr with my Lord beside me._

 _Heh. Politics, how I despise thee. Yet you are also deserving of the utmost respect for being so beloved and reviled at the same time. I don't think any King can ever avoid its seductive trance before they suffer the tender cruelty it brings later._

 _Here is to hope and for a better future now that Lord Corrin has arrived._

 _-Mark"_

 _Road between Northern Fortress and Windmire_

Night had given way completely after a full days march with small breaks littered here and there for lunch and dinner. Everyone's spirits were high but still wary for any Hoshidan assassins that might be lurking. Though the trip itself was not announced by any, Leon considered it stupid to think that nobody could have picked up on the fact that all but the King himself was seen heading to the Northern Fortress at the same time without their retainers in tow. Xander agreed wholeheartedly with that logic and during the breaks, went out on patrol with Gunther and Camilla to check a little further up the paths for anything that might lay in wait.

At the small camp itself, Corrin, Mark and the rest were sitting at a lit campfire as Leon went over some drills for Corrin to practice before arriving at the Capital.

"Alright Corrin, a noble approaches you. For this, let us say he is a lesser Baron. He greets you at eye level and waits for a response. What do you do?" Leon asked, going over court ethics with him so he wouldn't be caught flatfooted.

Thankfully, all the teachings Mark and Jakob pushed onto Corrin did not go to waste. While he did have to think about it as he instinctively wanted to answer 'Shake his hand and say hello', that would be seen as a sign of weakness or considering the Baron an equal.

"The correct response is to remind him that he is the presence of royalty and ask him to greet me properly before going further." Corrin said, grimacing all the while.

Mark gave a light clap of his hands at the response. "That's correct. Unless he is one of your siblings or the King, the correct thing for them to do is to kneel before you and announcing both name and title before waiting for you to give him permission to stand and speak unless said King, Xander or Camilla says otherwise. They are the only three that can override anything on proper etiquette requires." He expanded.

Leon nodded his head. "Correct. As the power always goes to the eldest sibling, Xander as Crown Prince hold the most sway. Camilla less so but as she is the First Princess, she still has enough power to forgo such a thing should she deem it necessary. Dusk Dragon forbid anything happens to those two and Father and should Father approve of your ascension to your proper title of Second Prince you would be the next in line for the throne by right of succession."

While it was a rather dark thing to think about, it was also a sadly valid concern with the constant strife between Hoshido and Nohr. Corrin really could end up becoming King if some truly bad battles happened. Though it was unlikely as Xander was a very able commander and thankfully King Garon seemed to favor giving him leeway with all of his successes in battle. Camilla was not a fool either and knew when to fight or flee.

Before they could go further, the scouting party returned and all three riders dismounted before taking their places next to the campfire. Xander sat next to Elise and Felicia, who both gave him a bright smile while Camilla sat next to Corrin, who looked decidedly uncomfortable with the look he was being given but still managed a smile to his older sister.

Gunther stood tall and tapped on Mark's shoulder, asking him to follow to the supply convoy that Felicia had been driving all day.

Once they were behind the wagon, Gunther went inside and grabbed something that Mark could not tell due to how dark it was in there at night before he came back out. The older man was holding several items which included a sword that, while sheathed, seemed to brim with power. Not enough to be a match for Siegfried, but definitely enough to make a warrior think twice before entering a duel. The other items were a powerful looking tome with lightning striking a hammer inscribed onto it and a small pouch of sorts. He handed each to Mark, who seemed stunned to be receiving this.

"Sir Gunther, what are these?" he asked, despite the fact that once he touched each item, an extremely nostalgic feeling washed over him. The amnesic retainer could almost taste the memories that wanted to brim to the surface but they just could not make it to the forefront of his mind.

"These were on your person when Lord Corrin and Felicia had found you. They were immediately confiscated by Jakob when he found you but I took them with us because, quite frankly, I do not trust those in Windmire or in Castle Krakenburg. We need everything we can get to protect Lord Corrin and quite frankly…I finally feel like I can trust you to at least use these to defend our lord rather than slay him." The older Paladin said in a hushed whisper.

Both of Mark's eyebrows rose in surprise as what Gunther was saying was more or less tantamount to High Treason, since it implied that he did not trust even King Garon. Though he was also touched at the high amount of trust that he was being given as Gunther was a very, VERY paranoid person at times and vetted people as much as Jakob did whenever they visited the Northern Fortress for any reason.

Mark's eyes then hardened as he took the tome and placed it inside of his coat, where two pockets laid just for objects like those though for the life of him he did not know why. The sword was slung onto his back while he tied the pouch to the side. Before they left the wagon area, Gunther placed his hand on Mark's shoulder one more time.

"Mark, I am entrusting you to the safety of Lord Corrin. Please, do not let me down and also keep our conversation secret. I'm afraid if you told our Lord, he would think I was planning to die in battle or something." Gunther requested.

Mark gave a slight chuckle at the joke the older man made at the end but nodded. "Yes, this is something that he doesn't need to know. Your secret is safe with me."

Both men gave each other a nod of renewed confidence and faith in one another before heading back to the campfire.

 _(Mark and Gunther have reached a Support Level of 'B')_

As they headed back to their original places, Corrin immediately latched onto Mark as a polite way of heading off Camilla, who had his head in her lap while she stroked his hair, much to the snickering amusement of the other siblings. Though Felicia was not impressed by that display in the slightest and Elise shivered a bit as a cold breeze seemed to pass by each time the older woman's eyes narrowed.

"Mark! So is everything ok with you and Gunther?" Corrin asked as he took note of the pouch that was now attached to his pants. "Oh, did he give you something for the trip?"

Mark shook his head and looked at Gunther from the corner of his eye, who gave a slight nod in response. "No, nothing like that. Apparently this bag was on me when we first met on the Fortress. He was giving them back and he thought maybe someone in Windmire might recognize where they and hopefully I come from." He responded with a half-truth.

This caught everyone's attention as things about Mark's past were completely enigmatic to everyone. Even Leon's attempts at bringing out his memories with magic were blocked and ended in failure. So before the retainer knew it, he was surrounded by almost everyone.

"Well well, let's see what the mighty Mark considers important enough to carry with him." Leon teased as Mark gave a slight sigh at how nosey they were being, even if he didn't blame them for why they were like this.

"Alright, let's see what we have." Mark muttered as he opened the small pouch. Though he was surprised to find out that once he stuck his hand inside, that it was MUCH deeper than it looked. "Well, this bag is definitely enchanted. I can feel several things in here that would not normally fit at least." He told them, much to their surprise. Items that were enchanted like that bag were not cheap in the slightest and even minor nobles would have trouble affording something like that.

With a slight tug, the first think that Mark pulled out were several blank blue cards. The etched designs on the back of each were beautiful, but everyone was slightly confused as to why the cards themselves were blank on the front. "Well, I guess the first thing on hand is blank cards?" he lamely announced as he looked long and hard at them. For a split second, he could have sworn that he could see _something_ on them but the moment he blinked the feeling left and the cards were once again blank.

"Hmm…maybe you were planning on using them like Tarot Cards? I remember seeing this one really pretty lady and a guy with a creepy looking nose in a velvet colored tent doing readings one time with cards that were similar in size when I was checking some shops in Windmire." Elise guessed, tugging at old memories from her times in the marketplace

It was as good an explanation as any and Mark shrugged before putting the cards back in. The next item that was pulled out was a necklace that contained a beautiful, crystalline stone that shone and glittered brightly in his hands as the campfire illuminated it.

"How beautiful…." Felicia murmured and the others nodded in agreement. It was indeed a very beautiful stone with a carving etched into it that had a symbol none of them recognized on it.

"Hmm…I'll have to see if any of the books in the Castle Library have something on that symbol inside of it." Leon said as he could also feel slight bits of magic emanating off of the stone. Though whether it was from the leftover of the carving, the stone itself or the etching being a rune or symbol of sorts he did not know.

Corrin, however, saw something deeper and it was not from the stone. "Mark…you're crying." He said in a soft tone.

The attention then broke from the stone to the retainer, who touched his cheeks in surprise as indeed, tears were flowing freely from his eyes for reasons he couldn't even begin to fathom. "Wha…why? How?" he muttered, though his breath seemed to hitch as he spoke.

To this, Gunther seemed to have a good explanation. "I think this is something related to a feeling so powerful, it was probably connected to the deepest parts of your spirit. Even if your mind does not remember, the spirit does and those tears are related to it. Everyone has something that they value dearly and this must be one of them."

Mark looked at the stone with an intense amount of focus, even if it hurt his head and his heart ached in doing so for seemingly no reason.

' _Please…please, let me remember something!'_ His mind screamed out to the rest of him. He continued this for a few minutes and just as he was about to give up, a flash came to him.

 _ **Memory**_

" _Re**m**r. Even if *** **** your *****ies a**in, your ****** and I will ****** l*** you."_

 _ **Memory End**_

Mark's focus broke and he had to gasp for air as he forgot to even breathe when he was assault with the faint whisper in the back of his mind. The tears from his eyes came flowing even more freely and his heart hurt so much he had to grip his chest to try to make it calm down.

"Mark…are you ok?" Camilla asked, kneeling down behind him and pulling him into a hug. Though he didn't even seem to recognize the action before he finally went and tied the necklace around his neck, his hands automatically doing the action as if he had done it all his life.

"I…I heard someone. I couldn't make out what the words being spoken were, but…it…it hurts to even think about it." He managed to squeak out as the agony of having amnesia returned and hit him twofold now. Corrin placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder as he too, had a slight bit of amnesia. He couldn't remember anything of his days before entering the Northern Fortress. Camilla continued to sooth him in a motherly manner, stroking his head and whispering sweet words into his ear.

"I think we should stop with that. If just one item affected you so badly, I don't want the next thing you pull out to make you comatose from possible shock." Xander declared, staring at the bag as if it contained the secrets of the universe…or all the evils behind it at the same time.

"I…think that's a good idea. Let's get some sleep. My butt is sore anyways from all that riding. At least we're what…two thirds of the way there?" Corrin suggested while rubbing his behind which was honestly beginning to fall asleep on him.

Xander looked at his siblings with a victorious, smug grin and held out his hand knowingly. Leon and Elise grumbled as they grabbed their money pouches and handed him forty silver coins in total that he put in his own money pouch. Corrin was confused by the action but they waved it off as something that they forgot to pay Xander for before they left.

Although their worry for Mark had not died down any, for what it counted sleep came for everyone. Though only Mark once again did not have a dream that night, even with the one slight voice that came earlier.

 _Next Day: Capital of Nohr: Windmire_

After getting a solid night's sleep and making sure Mark was fit to travel, the group finally arrived at the sprawling city of Windmire. Just like in the pictures Corrin had seen, the entire city was a circle within many other circles. Each 'section' of the city was divided by giant stone walls, sluices and gates that went from high to low. That was also to say nothing of the giant expanses of tunnels that lead into the deeper depths of Nohr where those that could not afford the luxury of a home at ground level lived. Invaders would easily find themselves lost in this city if they were not careful.

The group met no resistance as they came to the gate and were inspected by a mage who quickly checked them for illusionary magic. While it did not do much against a Hoshidan Ninja's 'justu' that allowed them to take the form of anyone and even perfectly matching it down to the voice, other assassins or undesirables did try to sneak in with glamour's of sorts. Corrin's eyes were wide when the giant gates that had blocked them out finally opened and he could see the grand view of Nohr's Capital with his own vision rather than having to rely on paintings and maps.

It brought a smile to everyone's face to see Corrin be so enthusiastic. Now they had to make the trek to the very heart of the city, where a pit lead to the lowest depths of their home, Castle Krakenburg. Unlike Castle Shirasagi of Hoshido which laid at the top of a sprawling hill which stood out immediately to anyone that had seen it, Nohr did the exact opposite. They built their castle in the pit that was once an abandoned mine as it made it extremely treacherous for those that did not know the proper way in to navigate, much less try to invade. Should the Hoshidans make it to Krakenburg, they would be in for a rude awakening to multiple booby trapped tunnels, chokepoints and magical surprises to compensate for lack of high ground.

Though while this made the castle seem rather dark and foreboding, even by Nohrian standards, the royals would have it no other way as this made the castle as secure as it could ever be.

After giving him a few minutes to adjust, Xander lead the others forward to the quickest way towards the castle, eager to declare their return home with the 'Little Prince' in tow.

' _Castle Krakenburg'_

It turned out that the quickest way in was to cross the narrowest chokepoint of a singular bridge leading from the main tunnel entryway into Windmire. Though the royals plus Gunther had no trouble crossing, Mark, Corrin and Felicia had a slight case of vertigo upon seeing just how far down they could drop if they weren't careful. It was not something that they wanted to experience again but they knew that they would have to in order to progress from one place to another for whatever King Garon assigned them.

Arriving at the castle gates, Xander unsheathed Siegfried and held it high for the guards to see. The second that it was shown they leapt into action by not only opening the gate, but using a special system that they had invented using long, angular tubes that stretched throughout the castle to announce their arrival. Thankfully Xander had given them forewarning about who they had planned to bring back with them so they could do the announcement without breaking to ask who the new people were.

" _Attention everyone! I repeat, attention everyone! Crown Prince Alexander, First Princess Camilla, Third Prince Leon and Second Princess Elise have all returned! With them is our final Prince, Second Prince Corrin Anankias Galaronis and his retinue! Please hail them and thank the Dusk Dragon for their safe return! All royal retainers should please report to the main hall to greet their charges per protocol!"_

"Boy, they sure do like to up the drama for announcements, don't they?" Mark asked as they passed through the gates and heard the announcement echoing all through the hall they were ushered into.

Leon shook his head. "It's only used for official channels. Reporting suspicious activity, announcing the arrival of any of the royals. Things like that. That way all the servants can get into their proper place and not cause a scene should they bump into us." He explained to them.

Elise pouted at the lack of people that were in the hall. "Oh where are those two retainers of mine? I told them I'd be back around now! I wanted you to meet them!"

 _Castle Krakenburg: Retainer's Quarters_

With no real concept of telling time aside from a magically attuned sun dais and a maid or butler asking for them to wake up, royal retainers tended to have very varied and open schedules. As such, one of them had been sleeping soundly until the announcement was almost blasted into their ear.

"Gods damn it, I HATE it when they do that!" the now awake figure grumbled. He had messy white hair, an eyepatch covering his right eye. As he tossed the blanket he had been sleeping under aside, he was shown to be quite tan in skin color, a rarity in Nohr due to the lack of sunlight, and had a well-toned body made for running.

"* _yawn*_ Zero, come back to bed." A second voice grumbled. This also belonged to a male, though this one was pale, had brown hair and a lithe figure. Unlike the now named Zero, it would quickly be made clear to an audience that the latter male was not a retainer just from his lack of physique and from their equal nakedness when the blanket was tossed aside they had done more than just sleep in the same bed.

"Sorry, but you know the rules. I gotta get ready and you have to leave." Zero stated plainly as he started to grab some clothes to wear.

The other male nodded sleepily but did not put up a fuss. "Hope you can 'punish' me again later." He said as a way of goodbye before leaving Zero to his thoughts.

"Good men like him are hard to find these days. Good women too. Gotta switch things up again next time I go drinking. Don't want him getting too attached to me now." He said to himself as he finished putting the last touches on his outfit, a cloak which would cover his entire frame easily with a hood large enough to cover his features. It was a moment later that the door slammed open and another male raced inside.

"Zero, my fortuitous comrade! We have been summoned by our Lord so come quickly! My blood is boiling in excitement for what he may order us to do this time!" the new man declared, though Zero himself didn't bat his singular eye at how 'poetic' the other male was.

"Odin. First off, calm down. Secondly, I doubt he'll have an assignment for us. He usually never does whenever he goes to visit his brother. Though we DO have to make a good first impression. So none of the funny stuff or else Lord Leon will burn your books. Again." Zero asked of his companion as he turned to look at him.

The other male had dirty blonde hair that was completely spiked upwards and held there by a diadem that was attached to his forehead. His clothes were…flashy, to say the least. Very yellow and very bombastic to look at with a magician like cape attached to the back to show off even further. A tome was clutched tightly in his right hand.

"Nay! I shall not have Shadows of Valentia meet the same fate as Binding Blade and Path of Radiance!" the now named Odin declared. "Still, we really do have to get going Zero. Also, please do warn me when you bring company over. It was not kind to walk in on you doing…things like that."

Zero once again shrugged as they walked out of the sleeping quarters and towards the main entryway. "Not my fault you ignored the sock on the door."

 _Castle Krakenburg: Training Quarters_

In the normally active training quarters, all was silent as the recruits that were originally going to go through their morning routine stopped to watch one of Princess Camilla's retainers going through combat motions against a stationary training dummy.

" _ORA!"_ Came the scream from the retainer as fist and flesh met straw and burlap. The retainer was female, with red hair tied into pigtails and was wearing the standard fair for a mercenary, complete with shield attached to the non-dominant arm.

" _ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA, ORA!"_ The screams continued as she went into a variety of martial techniques. Fists leading into kicks and backhands. Some blows went straight for spots that had the men holding their crotches in imaginary pain. After a few minutes of this, the red-head stopped screaming and let out a small sigh. She had hoped to vent out her frustrations from last night, but it seemed like that wouldn't be the case once the announcement was heard.

"Alright Beruka, I know you're there. Let me just get freshened up and I'll meet you at the hallway." The red-head said to what seemed like an empty, dark corner of the training hall. Several of the recruits screamed in surprise when they saw a short, light blue haired woman seemingly come right out of it like magic.

"Your situation awareness is astonishing as ever Selena. I didn't even make a sound and you knew I was there." Beruka stated as she walked up to her companion.

"You just go easy on me with not hiding your killing intent and we both know it." Selena stated as she tossed her hair slightly to the side. "Well, let's do this. I have to wonder if Lord Corrin remembers us though, it's been a few years." She muttered as the two left the training hall, but not before Selena turned around and looked at the recruits.

"As for you sad saps, get to work! Gawd, I'm not that scary!" she shouted before continuing her trek to the bath area and looking behind her once more, Beruka was gone.

"I will seriously never let her and Gerome meet. Too much angst will kill a person and having those two is asking for a pity party."

 _Castle Krakenburg: Xander's Quarters_

In the room of the Crown Prince, his two retainers were dutifully watching over things in their own way. The first was a silver haired man that like Selena, wore the typical fair for a mercenary. He was calmly sipping a cup of tea and looking at this fellow retainer.

The second one was a female and currently she was chained down to the floor in what many would call an indecent manner with several chains connected to various corners in the room. She was giving the silver haired man a look akin to a puppy that wanted to be let out of its cage. If she had a tail, it would have surely been wagging but for now her blue pigtails with the tips dyed pink were the ones shaking as she attempted but failed to hop in place.

"Now Peri, if I let you go will you PROMISE that you will not try to immediately run towards the servants quarters and kill the one that gave you the wrong set of ingredients for you to make your cookies?" the silver haired man asked his companion.

Peri nodded her head happily. "'res 'razlow!' she muttered though the gag that had been placed over her mouth to stop her hysteric screaming of wanting the servants blood and head being placed on a platter. Her hatred for all kinds of servants in general was already legendary in the Castle but the new incident of what happened when someone handed her the wrong ingredients when she wanted to bake sweets for her Lord and his siblings to munch on when they arrived would quickly gain traction as well.

With a slight sigh, the silver haired man undid the gag on Peri's mouth and the chains that bound her as well.

"Thanks Lazlow! It's too bad that it's too late to make the cookies for everyone, but at least we can go say hi! I wonder if the new Lord Corrin likes blood and death? Let's find out!" Peri said mostly to herself, but also to Lazlow as she skipped and hummed her way out of the room while Lazlow himself threw the chains in the corner of Xander's closet. Seeing as how he wears the same outfit, he highly doubted he would go deep enough to ask questions about the chains.

When it finally sunk in that he was left behind, Lazlow quickly got up and ran out of the room like a bat out of hell to try and find her. "PERI!"

 _Castle Krakenburg: Kitchen_

The final duo of royal retainers were trying to get themselves an early breakfast when the announcement came off. Though for one, 'early breakfast' was still the equivalent of a royal feast as half of a table that could seat ten people was filled to the brim with all sorts of various foods that was being eaten by one woman with light blonde hair in full pink armor. Her companion, an older and very well built man with bright blonde hair wearing a flashy blue and red outfit complete with a white cape, was happily munching down on a simple sandwich.

"Grr….right as I was getting into my morning meal too. How am I gonna train properly if I don't eat right?!" The woman grumbled as she got up, looking longingly at the spread that had yet to be eaten in front of her.

"JUSTICE NEVER RESTS!" her companion shouted. "Effie, Lady Elise needs us to be there for her. I know you're hungry, but she'll probably let you come back to finish eating after we greet her."

The knight named Effie sighed and finished off a whole turkey leg before standing up. "Alright and Arthur…try not to make this five minute trip harder than it has to be."

The cheerful Arthur gave her a radiant smile of pearly white teeth. "Of course! Things might always go wrong for me, but I would never make Lady Elise wait!" he said just as a large creaking noise was heard. Both retainers looked around before the seat Arthur was sitting on gave way and caused him to fall flat on his butt. In doing so, he accidentally kicked the table hard which caused a few of Effie's plates to go flying up into the air before gravity kicked in and they all fell…right onto Arthur's face.

Seeing some of her breakfast ruined, Effie's eye twitched dangerously before she hoisted Arthur up with little effort. "Come on. We're heading to the bathing room and getting you cleaned up!"

Arthur's response was slightly muffled as his face was covered by mulberry pie, one of her absolute favorites.

 _Castle Krakenburg: Main Entryway, 20 Minutes Later_

Everyone was patiently waiting for the royal retainers to arrive when Mark suddenly had a pained grimace come to his lips.

"Err…Lord Xander, is there a…lavatory nearby?" he asked, duly embarrassed by having to ask such a thing.

Xander didn't blame him for asking in the slightest since he saw Mark downing several goblets of water and his water skin after that trying experience last night and throughout the day today. "It's down the hall and to your left."

Mark gave an appreciative nod and quickly ran off in the intended direction. With him gone, it gave everyone else a chance to quickly talk about last nights…incident.

"Leon, did you manage to find anything?" Xander asked.

Leon himself was thoughtful as he placed his hand under his chin in thought. "Well, I did use my magic to see maybe if Mark's amnesia wasn't just from natural causes. Though I'm starting to think that whatever happened to him is a lot bigger than we honestly realized. From how badly he reacted to just one stone, I'm thinking that this is starting to delve into extremely dark arts. The kind that is outlawed across Nohr and Hoshido alike. Not to mention it's starting to look like Mark's entrance to the Northern Fortress was the result of the same kind of magic as well. Sadly, for as much as I'm good with magic, this is just too beyond me to help."

Corrin couldn't help but grimace at the possible diagnosis. Mark was his friend and someone he cared about deeply. To think that his memory loss and the cause of so much pain that he hid behind smiles and jokes was caused by extremely dark magic was an uncomfortable thought.

"Well, let's continue this conversation later. I can hear lots of footsteps heading our way. I think our cute little retainers are here." Camilla announced to everyone else.

That sobered everyone up and stood at attention as multiple people entered the room and each fell into line before their chosen Lord. Effie and a cleaned up, if wet, Arthur kneeled before Elise. A freshened up Selena and silent Beruka did the same for Camilla. Zero and Odin bowed before Leon while Lazlow and Peri did the same for Xander.

" **My Lord/Lady, Welcome Home!"**

All the servants spoke at the same time, impressing Corrin at the uniformity of it all. That kind of thing was rare in the Northern Fortress unless Jakob was telling them about all the royals arriving at the same time and wanting to greet them.

Each royal asked their servants to rise before turning around and looking at Corrin. "Everyone, it's been awhile but let us formally re-introduce to you our brother, soon-to-be Second Prince Corrin Anankias Galaronis." Xander declared as each servant went and kneeled before him, much to his embarrassment if the red color on his cheeks were any indication.

" **All hail Prince Corrin!"**

Once again, the uniformity of their words blew him away. Though he quickly schooled himself and cleared up his throat. _'Thank goodness Leon and Mark went over this stuff last night'_ he thought to himself before speaking.

"Thank you all for your tireless devotion to your Lord and Lady along with our King and our fine nation of Nohr. Your deeds are not forgotten and it is my honor to be working alongside you to make sure our country flourishes. Please, rise."

Leon was suitably impressed by Corrin's words and gave a nod of approval. Everyone else was smiling at seeing how his first act of being a true royal went off without a hitch. As the retainers rose, Lazlow was the first to speak.

"Lord Corrin, it is good to see you again. It has been about three years now and while I hate to cut off introductions for everyone else, I ran into…Iago on the way here. The King wants to see you immediately." He stated, the distaste at having to say the royal tacticians name was evident on his face.

Xander's eyebrow rose at that since their father was normally more patient in allowing protocol to be done. Still, it was almost fifteen years' worth of waiting so he guessed that he didn't want to have to wait another fifteen minutes for this. With a clap of his hands, he got everyone's attention. "Alright, let us head to the throne room then. Lazlow, take all the retainers and go ahead of us. We are going to do this properly." He ordered.

The retainers all bowed in understanding before filing out of the room. Not even a minute afterwards, Mark returned, looking slightly flustered.

"Sorry about that. Did I miss anything important?" he asked as the royals all looked at him with amazement at his both good and bad timing.

"Well, you missed the other retainers but Father has summoned us to the throne room. You can come along and we can finally formally introduce you. Maybe even have Father officially declare you to be my retainer." Corrin informed him with a smile on his face.

The thought of officially being declared his chosen Lord's retainer also put a smile on Mark's face before nodding. "Well, let's not waste any more time then!"

 _Castle Krakenburg: Throne Room_

All of the royals, plus Mark were gathered at the throne room. Xander had politely requested Gunther and Felicia to go with the other retainers and wait in the alcoves above while they presented Corrin. It was also well known to the Crown Prince that Gunther did have some bad blood with the King so he did not want this meeting to be tainted by that.

The double doors that lead into the room went all the way up to the ceiling and gave a larger than life feel to them. Corrin was suitably humbled seeing all the differences between his home in the Northern Fortress and Krakenburg. After a few minutes of waiting, they heard the loud, booming voice of King Garon calling for them.

" _ **ENTER!"**_

At this command, the doors slowly shifted and opened, revealing the grand hall that lead up to the throne room. The inside was colored in black, purple and the occasional bits of red seen by the long carpet that lead from the doors to the throne itself. All in all, it had an authority of power, something that commanded respect to all that looked at it.

Mark was asked to wait outside until Xander, Corrin or King Garon asked for him as Xander rightfully deduced that he wanted only the royal siblings to enter. Mark bowed lightly and did as he was asked while Corrin and the others went inside.

Corrin himself was slightly nervous, a bead of sweat running down his brow and his mouth going completely dry. It was so quiet he could feel his heart hammering in his chest while thousands of questions ran through his mind at once.

' _Will father approve of me? What will he think of Mark? Will I be able to fight with everyone else? Please let this go well!'_

After three agonizing minutes of walking forward, they were now at the bottom of the steps leading up to the throne and all five of them kneeled before King Garon.

The King himself looked as imposing as the throne room. Sitting in an almost lazy manner, one hand on the seat of the iron and velvet covered throne, King Garon looked down on the royal siblings as if they were beneath him. To the side of the throne was a very large double-bladed axe that Corrin very much doubted he could lift, but knowing that the King could, even at his older age as the white hair that flowed down to his back and wrinkles on his face indicated, showed Corrin the level he had to reach to be worthy of Nohr.

After a few minutes, the king's frown turned into a small smile as he went into a proper sitting position. In the alcoves above everyone, all the Nobles of Nohr whispered to themselves about Corrin and his appearance compared to everyone else. It was easy to see how Corrin did not look like the rest of his siblings, but the oldest and most experienced ones knew differently. They survived the concubine wars and they knew of the multitude of _other_ children that were killed or taken away and could immediately see a resemblance to the one that shook up the Nohrian Court over a decade ago.

"My Children." Garon spoke and immediately all the hushed whispering stopped.

"It is good to see that you are all well. As per my instructions, I can see that you have brought Corrin with you. Xander, this means that he had beaten you in a fair and honest duel, yes?"

Xander tensed slightly at the hidden meaning that was beneath the seemingly innocent question.

' _You did not go easy on him because of who he is, right?'_

Taking in a deep breath, Xander exhaled through his mouth to calm himself down before standing up and looking at his father straight in the eyes. "Yes, the duel itself was fought with honor and with witnesses. I ended up losing because I underestimated Corrin's resolve and training ethics."

As soon as he confessed this, the whispers of the nobles reached a crescendo. Xander was the best of the best in Nohr's army and a no named Prince that had been hidden away for years had bested him in a duel? Hearing the facts being spoken had several of them stirring with thoughts of how to meet Corrin and see if they could not broker an alliance of some sort.

"Corrin. Rise and look at me." Garon commanded.

As best as he could, Corrin willed his shaking legs to push himself up and looked at his father in the eyes as well. He was surprised at just how deep the emotions showed between them.

In his father, Corrin saw approval, intrigue, confusion and even a hint of fear.

In his son, King Garon saw hope, potential and something that he thought had not existed in his kingdom for a very, very long time. The want to do something greater than just fight and win.

After a few minutes, Garon left his seat and walked down the steps. With his heavy armor on, each footfall thundered throughout the room and those with weaker mental constitutions would think the room was shaking as well.

When he reached Corrin, Garon opened up his arms and embraced Corrin in a hug, much to everyone's surprise. King Garon was not normally one to show affection for any reason. Not even Xander could get something like that out of him so this was a grand occasion to see.

"My son, it does this old King proud to see how you have improved yourself in mind and body for your country. You do your ancestors and the Dusk Dragon proud as well." Garon started to say as he looked up at everyone in the alcoves above.

"To all the nobles gathered here today, I am proud to introduce the person that will help us win our war against Hoshido, my son the Second Prince Corrin Anankias Galaronis! With him on our side, no longer will this stalemate last. We will finally be able to gain ground, fertile land and no longer have to go hungry in the winter!"

Corrin blinked at those words. They were definitely carefully selected to get a rise out of everyone, but he didn't realize just how badly everything was going in Nohr if wintertime famines were so commonplace!

"For far too long, Hoshido has stubbornly refused us trade in their lands. They thrive in excess, having food that they easily throw out if it isn't to their palette. Yet we of Nohr still live! The Dusk Dragon allowed us to be hardy, to thrive in otherwise uninhabitable conditions! WE SHALL ADVANCE! THIS CONQUEST WILL NOT BE DENIED! FOR THE KINGDOM OF NOHR, WE! SHALL! SURVIVE!"

With the final decrees coming out of King Garon's mouth, all the nobles stood up and either clapped their hands or roared their approval to this. After all, if Corrin was on level with Crown Prince Xander, then how would Hoshido be able to stop them?

Garon finally released Corrin and looked at him with a proud smile on his face. "Corrin, I welcome you formally into our family as the Second Prince of Nohr. May you smite our enemies and bring pride to the Dusk Dragon. Though in order to see where your place will be in the army, I have made a small test of your skills so I may see them for myself."

Corrin blinked as the overflow of information and contradictory actions of King Garon began to make his head spin slightly.

"A…test, Father?" he asked hesitantly.

Garon nodded. "Yes, we recently came across a small camp of Hoshidan warriors trying to gain headway into our nation. They are captured and are in the dungeons. Beat them and prove your might! Though not before you get a weapon of your own." Raising his hand into the air, he snapped his fingers.

In an instant, a bright light filled the room and a man appeared next to Garon. Just looking at him for one moment set all of Corrin's hair on end. 'Slime' did not describe just how _wrong_ this person felt to him. For standing before him was Iago, the royal tactician. He was pale, almost a ghastly white in skin tone with hair that looked like it had not been properly washed in days and a mask covering half of his face. His mouth was caught in what felt like a perpetual sneer and in his hand was the sheath of a sword with a slight curvature towards the end of it.

The hilt was definitely the most intriguing design as it flowed outwards and the guard seemed to be spiked outwards as if it would stab someone should they try to grab it. Though the most concerning thing was that Corrin could swear at the middle of this wide hilt, a red eye blinked at him. Though when Corrin blinked back, it was gone and there was no indication that the eye was even there in the first place.

Taking the blade in hand, he unsheathed it. A dark power immediately filled the room as he looked at it properly. Like Xander's Siegfried, the blade was pitch black but unlike the royal regalia, Corrin's own sword seemed to have 'cracks' on it that glowed occasionally with a sickly red energy. Still, it brimmed with power and aesthetic design aside, it did not seem like it would break if he swung and hit someone or another weapon with it.

"This is Ganglari, a weapon that was made in a joint effort between our best blacksmith and our dark mages. It should prove useful to you in battle as it is made to always be sharp and knock aside blades with the curved edge to gain advantage when locking blades with another." Garon explained.

Putting the sword back in its sheath, Corrin attached it to the proper notch at his belt and felt the power it had dissipate the moment he did. "Such a wondrous gift. Father, this is amazing!" he said, joy clearly visible on his face.

"It is no less than what you have earned my son. Now, to address another manner. Xander has informed me that you have found a man that you consider to be worthy of being called your retainer?"

Corrin nodded at the question. "Yes Father. For the last two years, he has been the one alongside Gunther to teach me swordplay. In fact, he is the one that helped me improve enough to beat Xander." He explained, trying to make Mark sound better.

Though all his words did was raise an eyebrow on the King's forehead. "Hoh? That is a mighty claim to make. Very well. **RETAINER TO BE, ENTER!** " Garon shouted.

 _Alcoves_

Lazlow, Selena and Odin all stood next to each other in their own little corner, looking down at the pomp and circumstance below. "Someone that trained him to beat Xander in a duel? That IS a tall claim to make." Lazlow said to himself.

"Psh. Please, if it wasn't for us holding back our skills so we don't look suspicious, all three of us could beat Xander one on one." Selena scoffed, looking down herself.

"Still, for this unknown person to be recommended by Lord Corrin and everyone else…this man might just be worthy to make my blood ache for battle!" Odin whispered loudly, which was room voice level for anybody else.

When the doors opened and the person in question walked in, however, all three of their faces went white simultaneously and they found themselves sucking in their breaths.

"No. No, nonononononono…." Lazlow began to mutter to himself.

"How? HOW did he find us all the way out here?!" Selena hissed as her heart was now thumping loudly enough for her to hear from the sheer panic that was being instilled in her.

"Did Chrom send him after us? Our parents? Why is Robin here of all people?" Odin muttered to himself, speaking plainly to show just how serious he was taking things.

Looking down at that familiar cloak, the one that commanded them time and time again in Ylisse, the trio just knew that somehow they were in deep, deep trouble.

Though once Garon asked for the cloaked person's name and they heard the voice that responded, the worried feeling was quickly replaced with a feeling that someone had punched them in the gut. REPEATEDLY.

That feeling only got worse when they saw his face being revealed to the court and familiar, azure locks of hair and pointed ears were shown to them.

' _Why? Why you?'_

 _Throne Room_

Mark entered the throne room when he was summoned inside and strode confidently to where the royal siblings were before kneeling in front of King Garon, showing proper deference to him.

The King nodded, already having a small modicum of respect for the young man showing he knew how to act. He could also sense the waves of power just waiting to breach the surface coming from his body. Power beget power and he could definitely respect someone that had so much and yet was so controlled with it.

"Rise, young one. Please remove your hood and state your name."

There was no hesitation in Mark's actions. He stood up immediately and pulled his hood back, revealing his youthful face to the crowd, surprising everyone once again. He looked as young as Corrin, maybe even Leon's age, and yet according to Corrin's words, he was experienced enough to train him to beat Xander. It added an aura of intrigue to him that had the entire court whispering to each other in excitement.

"My name…well, I do not remember my name my King. Though Corrin graciously gave me the name of Mark until such a day comes where I can remember it." He responded.

Garon gave a short, slight nod. "Why do you think you are worthy of being my son's retainer? He and Xander have both told me of your deeds but all I see in front of me is a person no older than they."

Mark gave a small smile at the criticism. "If I had to give myself a profession, I would say that I am a tactician my King. My mind is my sharpest weapon and if anyone should underestimate me in battle because of my looks or my age, it would be to their detriment."

Iago scoffed at hearing the amnesic say he was a tactician but was silenced quickly at the leveled glare Garon gave him for even daring to BREATHE out of turn.

"Hmm….well, you will have your chance to prove yourself as well. Fight with Corrin at your side and prove to me why you should be a retainer. Now then. We shall have our exhibition match between Corrin and Mark ALONE against our Hoshidan intruders!" Garon announced and the court went into a frenzy of war cries at the thought of seeing their enemy's blood being shed.

With a flourish of his cape, Garon turned around and sat back down on his throne. The moment he did, all sense of warmth that he had been emanating earlier died and a stark coldness returned. No longer was he King Garon, the father. This was King Garon, the leader of Nohr.

"Leave and prepare, both of you." With a wave of his hand, everyone was dismissed.

 _Outside of the Throne Room, Alcove entrance_

Lazlow, Selena and Odin were in a slight panic and rightfully so. Everything had been fine, going undercover and becoming retainers for the royal siblings of Nohr so that they could keep their promise to Anankos and watch over his child, Corrin. Now they had a huge problem in the form of their good friend Morgan.

"What are we gonna do? If Morgan is here that must mean some of the others are here too! They're probably trying to take us back home!" Selena hissed out in a heated manner.

"This is not good. Morgan is nearly as equal as Robin in battle proficiency. Even all three of us combined couldn't hold a candle to Robin and Morgan is just as bad." Odin added, remembering all the training session where his fellow Justice Cabal member and he sparred. Not once did he ever pull out a true victory and at most, came to a draw with him.

"Now, Now everyone calm down. Robin is known to see through just about everything. I'm sure that if we explain to Morgan what's going on, then everything will be fine. After all, I know my father and he wouldn't drag us back unless we didn't have a good reason as to why we left in the first place." Lazlow reasoned. Out of everybody, he was one of the ones that knew Morgan best, being childhood playmates and often teaming up with him later on in battle.

"Yeah…yeah that's a good idea. I don't think Chrom would force us to come back unless Robin convinced him it was a good idea and there's no way there is a fourth war going on in Ylisse." Selena muttered to herself, calming down slightly.

"Besides…this could be a blessing in disguise. Right now he's fighting for the right to be Lord Corrin's retainer. With him, it'll make our quest easier." Odin added.

"Yes…though that leaves the mystery of who else came with him to Nohr in the first place because there is no way, powerful or not, that Morgan would be sent alone. We will have to ask him after the battle. Alright, let's get to our posts before someone notices our absence." Lazlow said before pushing his friends to move on.

They all hoped that deep down, their mission to help that innocent, lost soul just got easier rather than harder. They also knew that with their luck, there was a high chance of the latter happening.

 _Castle Krakenburg: Dungeons_

The dungeons of castle Krakenburg is considered by many to be the last stop for those that are captured in battle, as nobody has ever come out once they have gone in. Either broken by torture, starvation or killed in gladiatorial events, death or a fate worse than death was assured. That was what Rinkah, daughter to the chieftain of the Fire Tribe had been taught all of her life. To avoid this sort of situation she trained constantly, day in and day out. To be the strongest…

In the end, strength just wasn't enough. She had been cocky, overconfident thinking that with her training she could stand up to anybody. A cold dose of reality came when Princess Camilla swooped down on them and showed her what real power was. Her retainers were no slouches either as the red haired one mowed through the ninja's like they were nothing, while the infamous Beruka of the Black Axe took down all those that tried to run away with a scary amount of efficiency. From the thirty troops that they had managed to get into Anya, only four of them were left now which included her original ninja escort, Suzukaze.

"Oi…mosshead. When do you think they'll stop twiddling their thumbs and kill us?" she asked, having long since lost her patience in waiting and taken to needling the man in the cell across from her. Though no response was given, as the said 'mosshead' was in a meditative position and calm as could be with all the circumstances being considered.

"Oi! Suzukaze! C'mon, give me something." Rinkah shouted this time and grinned in triumph when she saw one eye lazily pop open from the ninja.

"Rinkah, conserve your energy. They spared us for a reason and so long as we have the energy to fight, we also have the energy to live and make an escape." Suzukaze admonished.

"Psh. Nice dream but even I'm not stupid enough to think that they'll honestly let us out of here. Though if I can go down swinging that'll be enough for me." Rinkah scoffed, thinking the ninja mad for even harboring the thought of escaping when the King himself oversaw each gladiatorial battle.

Before Suzukaze could retort, the sound of footsteps echoing down into the dungeon reached both of their ears and they went stark silent. They could see the faint tell-tale sign of a torchlight coming their way until finally, they saw the red-haired retainer of Princess Camilla looking at both them. Rinkah let out a small sneer when her nose scrunched up due to the smell that emanated from the place. The putrid stench of death and decay filled everything in that hellhole they were in and it was good to know that not even those that lived in Anya were immune to it.

"Alright. All of you are getting a quick meal and a bath. You'll be put to the test for your right to freedom in the arena. Be grateful that King Garon was merciful enough to grant you that much, along with weapons rather than making you go bare-handed." She shouted at all four prisoners. Putting her torch in a holder that was built into the wall, she went to a nearby table that was set up for guards that had to constantly watch high-value prisoners. On it was a simple black book that was picked up and flipped through until she reached a certain page about a third of the way in.

"I would also advise you not to try and make a bid for freedom. You can't see her, but I assure you Beruka is watching." Selena added in at the last moment before a heavy wave of killing intent washed over everyone. When Selena raised her hand, it stopped and the sound of rapid heartbeats banging against their owners chests could be heard.

Giving a smug look to the prisoners, Selena began to chant a simple spell that even those without inherit magic could use.

" _Salavanas, Kouyeru Avanshi!"_

With the simple three code passphrase, the magic holding the bars shut was undone and they opened with a loud groaning noise. The three ninjas and one Fire Tribe member warily stepped out before Selena shoved them along a dark hallway.

Within a few minutes, they reached a fork in the relatively straight hallway. "Alright, women's bath on the right, men to the left. A soup that will fill up your stomachs but not make you sick are waiting too. Eat or don't eat, it's your choice." Having said her piece, Selena escorted Rinkah towards the womens bathing area. While the men could have begun running for it, a quick but subtle gesture from Suzukaze's fingers stopped the other two ninja, reminding them that they were all being watched by someone who was just as good as they were in stealth. Instead, they reluctantly continued on towards what was quite possibly their final meal and bath.

 _Female Prisoners Bathing Area_

Rinkah was honestly surprised to see that the bathing area was actually…hospitable. A warm pool of water awaited and a small bowl with several vegetables floating inside of a rich looking soup was next to it. Her stomach grumbled at seeing the food and remembering how she had survived on just stale bread for the last few days and some dirty water. All the while Selena stood guard over her as Rinkah debated on just jumping in with her clothes on or off.

"Go ahead and undress. You don't have anything I haven't seen before. I'll also have someone clean up your clothes. King Garon is giving you an hour to do all of this, so make the most of it." The red haired warrior ordered.

Rinkah sent a withering glare her way that was returned with equal force. "Hmph. Not like I have much in the first place." She muttered before breaking eye contact and undoing her chest bindings first before taking off the rest of her clothes.

With a snap of Selena's fingers, a maid that had been waiting in a secret passage for that very same signal came and grabbed Rinkah's clothes before taking them off to get washed.

"You know…I have to wonder. Why forgo the armor? Doesn't it make it that much more dangerous for you?" Selena asked as she watch Rinkah carefully devouring the soup while letting the warm water undo some stress knots that had been building up in her back.

"It's because I'm from the Fire Tribe. There, we value strength above everything else. We survive the harshest winters, the hottest summers and all different kinds of foes without fear. To wear armor is a shame to our tribe unless you are the tribe leader and greeting guests. Even then its ceremonial over functional. We believe that as a culture, if you are not hardy enough to take a hit, then you are worthless to the tribe as a whole." Rinkah explained, having nothing better to do as she finished off the last of her soup before beginning to clean up.

"At the very least wear a shirt? I mean, wouldn't you be embarrassed if someone ripped those bindings off and you'd be showing your… _twins_ …to everyone?" Selena retorted.

"Hmph. If it ever comes to that the unlucky bastard who did it isn't going to live to see the next day, even if it kills me to do it. The only one that gets to see me without those is my future husband and he would have to be strong enough to rip them off of me in the first place. Not happening anytime soon. Now let me bathe in peace."

"Well sorry for trying to make your last hour at least not so quiet. Hmph. Ungrateful little…." Selena began to rant under her breath.

With a huff, the red head stood up and waited by the entrance for the rest of the hour. Rinkah took the time to soak and make herself as presentable as possible. If she was going to die, she had better as well make sure she was going to look decent doing so.

Before the hour was gone, the maid returned with Rinkah's clothes, cleaned and dried with a special magical spell used to get clothes from wet to dry quicker just for events like these. She put them on and was satisfied with the results before wrapping her chest again with a triple layer rather than the dual layer she normally used. No need to possibly have it falling off because of the washing.

When she was done, Selena escorted her back to the branching section of the hall, where Suzukaze and the others awaited them.

"Follow us." Beruka quietly voiced from the shadows as she appeared behind the ninjas while Selena took the front. Within a matter of minutes they were at the gladiatorial arena, where the screams of commoner and noble alike looking for bloodshed could be heard all around.

"Hmph. Time to make a prissy little Anyan bitch cry home for mama."

"While I wouldn't put it so crudely, I do agree that for our survival, failure is not an option."

' _Feh, if you only knew who you were going up against, you'd be pissing yourselves.'_ Selena thought idly in amusement, but showed no outward sign save a snort of displeasure.

 _Castle Krakenburg: Gladiatorial Arena_

Mark and Corrin stood alone, testing their weapons out to make sure nothing was wrong. While Mark was allowed to keep the weapons Gunther had given him earlier, King Garon insisted that he keep it to a simple bronze sword and a low level thunder tome. He already had an idea of what Garon had in mind and he hoped that his worries were unfounded, but so far from all the hungry looks he and Corrin had been receiving from anybody that dressed nicely he doubted so.

Corrin himself was doing some shadow fighting with Ganglari, getting used to the weapons weight. Despite being made of black metal, it was surprisingly light and easy to wield, almost like an extension of his arm. As he was used to heavier equipment, he had to go easier on his thrusts as he already overextended several times.

As soon as the screams around them intensified, they knew that the prisoners from Hoshido had arrived. Schooling their best battle faces, or Corrin's at least as Mark's hood was pulled back up, they took stock of the people that they were to defeat.

Mark could tell that this wasn't some sort of tribute match as the opposition looked a little too fresh. They weren't skin and bones, but he could see some pained expressions coming from them every now and again that spoke of poor eating and sleeping taking its toll. There was also a fire in them that did not seem to go quietly either.

' _We have our work cut out for us on this one…'_ He idly thought while their opponents looked at them as well, but said nothing.

Suddenly, the screams reached a crescendo and all faces turned towards what was once the empty throne seat in the stands, now occupied by King Garon himself.

The King held his hand out and all were silenced in an instant.

"My fellow Nohrians, today we are here to take stock in two up and coming warriors to our grand nation. My son who has been away for his safety but now returns to help against those ungrateful Hoshidans that keep land and food away from us! Please welcome Second Prince Corrin Anankias Galaronis!" King Garon announced and the arena erupted into cheers and hollers as Corrin waved politely, face red with embarrassment as he was singled out.

Nobody noticed Suzukaze's eyes widen when he got a second, closer look at the 'new' Prince. "Prince Kamui?" he whispered, though even if he had spoken at room voice, his words would have been drowned out.

Another minute or two passed before King Garon called for silence. "With him is supposedly a very, very promising young lad that has a mind as sharp as his body. He is with Corrin to prove his mettle to be his retainer. We welcome Mark to test his worth!"

A second round of cheers went up as Mark kept silent and did nothing but stare at his opponents, trying to read any little detail on their body language so he could get an advantage.

When King Garon asked for silence again, he continued his speech. "These Hoshidans were captured near the border, attempting to sneak in and try to gain intelligence on our armies and conditions. Though we of Nohr will prove that we are more merciful than Hoshido and their allied nations paint us to be. Hoshido warriors! Should you prove by strength or by luck that you can best both Corrin and Mark, I shall personally grant you an imperial pardon and you will be free to leave without any hindrance and even be given supplies for the trip back to your land!"

Rather than cheers, this announcement was met with jeers and boos while chants of Corrin and Mark's names echoed all around them.

Rinkah cared for none of it and walked forward with Suzukaze to their opponents.

"I am Rinkah, Daughter of the Fire Tribe's Honorable Chieftain! Nohrian Prince and retainer, I will avenge my earlier defeat at your sisters hand by staining my club with your blood." She announced with no fear or hesitation in her voice.

Suzukaze, on the other hand, was far more wary of the other two. Though he did give a bow of respect that Mark and Corrin returned. "I am but a humble ninja serving my country. I go by Suzukaze, but you Nohrians just usually call me Kaze." He said while introducing himself. Then he looked Corrin straight into the eye.

"Second Prince Corrin, please tell me…does the name 'Kamui' sound familiar to you at all?" he asked.

Corrin looked thoughtful as he combed through his admittedly spotty memory. "Kamui…" he repeated to himself. The word didn't sound completely unfamiliar. In fact, it was said in an almost longing tone as if it was a long lost friend being greeted. In the end he shook his head no.

"I'm sorry. The name itself sounds familiar but I have no recollection of where or why."

Suzukaze bowed once more, but his entire body was stiff at the answer. "I see. Thank you."

The two Hoshidans went back to their group and walked to the other end of the arena. Once the two sides were ready, King Garon raised his hand once more before a look of concentration came over him.

With nothing more than a small grunt of exertion, a surge of energy came forth from his hand and impacted the entire arena. As the whole place was supposedly made in the middle of a rich vein of natural energy flowing all around them, there was also an abundance in Dragon Veins which King Garon took advantage of.

The entire arena cracked and rumbled, nearly bowling everyone over but soon enough the effects of the Dragon Vein were seen as dilapidated structures rose up all around them, including a rubble filled tower bottom. Several Dragon Veins also opened up all around the arena. All in all, it was going to be a battle of smarts and attrition.

"This fight shall end when one side is either dead or incapacitated! Now **BEGIN**!" King Garon all but roared.

 _BATTLE START  
Corrin (Lvl 2 Dark Prince) and Mark (Lvl 20 Tactician) vs. Rinkah (Lvl 4 Oni Savage), Suzukaze (Lvl 4 Ninja), Hoshidan Ninja x2 (Lvl 3 Ninja x2)_

The very second the battle started the Ninja's used their superior speed to disperse and run across the terrain to get advantage on higher ground, leaving Rinkah to bull rush forward towards the two via a side path along all the ruined buildings in the way. Mark, however, went to Corrin to discuss strategy.

"Lord Corrin, with the activation of a Dragon Vein, do you sense any more that can be activated?" he asked.

Corrin took in a deep breath and concentrated to feel the flow of energy coming from the ground. As he never really trained in them like his siblings did, it took a moment to 'connect' to the earth like they could, but he did see one. "Yes, it's actually directly in front of us, right before that ruined house." He stated, pointing right in front of them.

"Good, activate it. I'll hold off any of the Ninja's that come by if need be." Mark explained before taking out the thunder tome and charging his hand with the energy contained within to the point where sparks were flying out of his hand.

Corrin rushed towards the Dragon Vein and placed his hand down on it.

' _Alright, deep breath and do it exactly like how Xander taught you. Feel the flow of energy, channel it, direct it and will it.'_ He repeatedly thought to himself as he felt a surge of energy flowing through him.

As much as he wanted to celebrate his first Dragon Vein activation, the energy was not something a human was meant to hold. So he willed it forward and blasted all the dirt and debris from the house. This was very good for them, as it meant that they could force all the ninjas to an easily defended chokepoint. To make things even more fortuitous, the same healing wind that Xander had used at the Northern Fortress was also present in the house, which meant that he and Mark could continually fight while their enemies could only hold onto any injuries that they gained.

Mark gave a rather savage grin when he noticed that as well. He ushered Corrin into the house and plugged the front door and any nearby window with some of the scattered debris, like an old bookshelf that remained untouched alongside a table. This left the two side entrances to deal with and that was much more manageable as they each took one side.

Corrin didn't have to wait long before he saw his opponent. Rinkah just seemed to keep going straight without ever pausing to stop! She also had ninja backup with her which made him doubly wary since they could easily do coordinated attacks.

Though his entire impromptu strategy died as soon as it began when Rinkah slammed her club against Ganglari and the sword barely so much as twitched. Thanks to the chokepoint, the ninja would also have a hard time trying to hit Corrin without hitting Rinkah first.

Mark, on the other hand, was going up against two ninja's that both had a better sense of teamwork about them. So he tested the waters by throwing out a few simple thunder spells out in what seemed to be random directions, but in actuality every shot closed them in further and further into a narrower path. A few times he noticed a stray shot being pulled to the side when their shuriken were thrown, attracted to the metal object but only when there was a group of two or three rather than just one.

 _'This ninja is not stupid. He's leading his partner well, probably via subtle body language to keep silence. Lord Corrin is thankfully stalling the hot-headed girl and her teamwork is proving atrocious.'_ The tactician thought to himself as he pulled out his bronze sword. At this point, he knew that the tome was not going to be useful anymore. They had gotten too close for him to concentrate on using spells, but as Suzukaze came down with an overhead strike and his ninja companion attempted to rush him, both were met with equal failure. The stabbing tool attached to Suzukaze's sleeve was deflected by Mark's bronze sword with sparks flying everywhere as the ninja tried to use his better leverage and weight against his Nohrian foe.

Their plan was ruined, however, by his well-meaning companion that went back for other strike against him. Just like with Xander, Mark raised his foot slightly and then struck out with a fierce kick that definitely broke something against steeled toed footwear. In this case, the momentum that the ninja had built up in his run worked completely against him as he was sent hurtling off a short distance away, leaving him free to deal with Suzukaze and allowing him to spare a glance at how his Lord was doing.

Corrin's fight with Rinkah, in his opinion, was much simpler than his spars with Xander. All he had to do was parry, parry, thrust, slice and occasionally lean back or jump back slightly from the shurikens being thrown at him. Mark had done worse to him during their training and the results in that hard work showed in the multiple bruises and cuts that were appearing on Rinkah's body while she was panted and doused in sweat.

"Grrr…I won't lose again!" She shouted as the blood of the fire tribe began to burn inside of her. Use her club as a medium, it was very quickly set on fire as she was set to once again try to beat him to death.

Corrin was no fool, however and there was absolutely no way he was going to be stuck with that.

"Mark, switch!" he called out before the two disengaged their enemies and ran for the one opposite of them.

In doing so, they dumbfounded Suzukaze and Rinkah alike, whose balance was thrown off by their opponents' sudden disappearance causing both to swing wide.

The battle was quickly resumed though when Mark and Rinkah now crossed blades. Suzukaze, on the other hand, was far more reluctant to hurt Corrin and it showed with how he backed off by doing several backflips.

"Please, would you step down? I do not sense any bloodlust from you. It is not a game for you either. You seem like a reasonable and kind person." The green haired ninja asked of the Prince.

Corrin would have none of it though, being responsible for not only Mark's safety but also for Nohr as a whole.

"I am sorry. I can tell you just want to go home, but for the sake of King and Country, you will fall here!" Corrin promised as he lashed out with a quick swipe of Ganglari.

Suzukaze backflipped several times before trying to confuse Corrin by running circles around him and harassing him with thrown shuriken.

Corrin actually came up with an idea that would be easier to counter. As Suzukaze completed another lap around him, Corrin followed with a quick, full circle slash that forced the ninja to stop and disengage before becoming eviscerated, which is exactly what Corrin wanted from him.

With a large roar, Corrin lunged forward and caught the ninja by the neck with his free hand before attempting to knock him out completely from lack of oxygen due to being choked out. "D…damn….Lord…Kamui…I just…wanted…" he whispered between gags. He futilely attempted to break out of the hold, but Corrin had the leverage advantage and no matter how much bigger or stronger someone is, if they didn't have the right leverage, they weren't breaking out of a hold.

Darkness filled his vision and spots began to dance before his eyes as he felt the cold hand of death reaching out to him. Just before he attempted to take his last failed breath, he began to be able to breathe easier and took large gasps of air as he coughed and sputtered. As he vision cleared, he saw that Corrin had let him go. "You are defeated. Stay down." He ordered before he ran off to the other end of the house.

Suzukaze flopped over and looked at his companion, who was not moving or breathing. Grunting slightly, he forced himself to look up and saw blood leaking out of the ninja's mouth. Mark's kick had more force behind it than he had intended and with the ninja's weakened constitution, the kick ended up shattering ribs and one of them had probably pierced a lung.

 _'I'm sorry…I just wasn't…strong…enough…never…strong enough…'_ Those were the final thoughts Suzukaze had before blacking out.

Mark and Rinkah's fight was making her blood boil in excitement. "Yes! THIS is the kind of battles I live for!" she shouted as her fire tipped club made another swing at the tactician, who ducked and countered by hitting her stomach with the hilt of her blade. It served to knock the wind out of her and force her to kneel down to get some breath back in her before he deflected several shurikens being thrown at them.

 _'My Lord is too kind to take care of this people, no matter how much he says otherwise. I won't allow them the chance to hurt him!'_ he swore to himself as he leaped over Rinkah's prone form and leaping at the last ninja, who was in the middle of trying to grab another shuriken.

He could see the panic seeping into his foes eyes as he came down on him like an avatar of death and thus, did not respond in time to deflect Mark's slash, which cut him diagonally from chest to waist. Blood was drawn and splashed out of the ninja, who bled out almost instantly and fell to the ground. None of it touched the tactician save his blade. He bowed out of respect to his fallen opponent. "For what it is worth, I am sorry. I hope your soul, at the very least, finds more peace in death than life."

Turning around, he saw that his Lord had finished his own fight and had his sword against Rinkah's neck, the sign of victory. Though from the growl that was coming from the girl's mouth she might have been stupid enough to risk having her throat cut over defeat. So he placed his sword against the other side of her neck and made sure she could see the blood dripping from it.

"I…I surrender." Rinkah gritted out before slamming her fist into the wooden floor, completely breaking the spot where it hit.

" **THE BATTLE IS OVER. THE WINNERS ARE SECOND PRINCE CORRIN AND HIS NEW RETAINER, MARK!** " King Garon's voice boomed over the loud cheers and hollering that made Corrin and Mark's sensitive ears hurt.

Coming out of the house, they left their defeated foes behind and Corrin looked up at the VIP section, where his siblings all stood, clapping, smiling and cheering at his victory like everyone else.

Corrin could see why Xander said victory could feel very intoxicating because if this was what it felt like, he couldn't wait to do the same on a real battlefield, where he could make a difference for the better.

 _BATTLE FINISHED_

 _RESULTS: Corrin has leveled up! (Lvl 4 Dark Prince. +7 HP, +6 STR, +5 DEF, +2 SPD, +3 LCK, +4 SKL, +1 RES, +1 MAG)_

Once King Garon called for silence, he spoke in a regular tone of voice instead of using the 'megaphone' tome that Leon had given him as a gift from a curious merchant he came across throughout his travels in Nohr. It made the pressure on his throat much, much easier to deal with.

"Corrin, Mark, both of you have displayed much ingenuity and strategy in your battle. Although covered by the house, I was able to see what happened inside through the use of a tome that allows me vision through walls. Switching and pushing back opponents so you can throw them off balance before engaging the other opponent when things looked unfavorable is something I might have the main army adapt to." He praised.

Both bowed low at the compliment. "Thank you sire. Your words humble us to no end. When Lord Corrin and I pair up, we cover for all weaknesses that the other might have as best we are able." Mark explained.

King Garon stroked his beard at how Mark called it 'Pairing Up'. "Indeed. Your strategy to gain an access to a chokepoint via the Dragon Vein was most fortunate. You have proven yourself worthy for the position that you have desired. So by the authority vested in me and with the blessings of the Dusk Dragon, I do hereby proclaim you, Mark, a royal retainer to my son!"

With that proclamation, everyone cheered once more and the royal siblings couldn't be prouder of Mark and his hard work and effort without Felicia and Gunther by his side.

"Now onto other matters." Raising his hand, Garon snapped his fingers and two mages warped into the arena, grabbed Suzukaze who had just awoken from his unconscious state and the furious Rinkah before teleporting them in front of Corrin.

"Corrin, finish the job and kill this two intruders. Prove your loyalty beyond the shadow of any doubt!" he commanded.

Corrin, for his part, looked horrified at the command being given to him and Mark was completely stunned. While his sisters looked equally baffled, Xander and Leon knew that this was just another part of the 'show' of strength and grimaced until Leon stood up and walked out of the VIP booth they were all in.

"E…execute them father?" Corrin weakly repeated.

King Garon tilted his head before smiling. Though the smile that Corrin saw was not a kind one. Rather, it looked absolutely twisted and depraved, almost like the King was excited at the thought of more blood and death. "Yes, I do believe that is what I just said. Kill them and let us be done with this!"

Corrin shook his head. "Father, they're defeated and weaponless now. There is no worth in killing them!" he tried to plea in the Hoshidan's defense, stunning not only them, but everyone in the area.

That was when a terrible chill set in, one that made Corrin shiver down to his very soul as King Garon looked at him in the eyes. The eyes of madness and chaos that wanted nothing more to remind Corrin of just how weak and small he was compared to the King himself.

"Are you disobeying a direct order?" King Garon asked, his hand slowly making a show of grabbing the hilt of his mighty axe, Bolverk.

Before Corrin could open his mouth, Mark elbowed him in the ribs and made a small motion for him to be silent. "Forgive my impertinence your majesty, but what Lord Corrin means is that, how can Hoshido know about this new and mighty warrior entering the battlefield from now on if there is nobody to tell them of it?" he interrupted.

The scornful gaze that had been directed at Corrin was now directed at Mark. "EXPLAIN." He demanded.

Mark schooled his emotions much better than Corrin and showed no fear at responding. "Well sire, the saying goes 'Dead Men Tell No Tales'. Why wait for Hoshido to hear about the victory on the battlefield when there are better and other applications for letting these two go back to Hoshido and explaining about their humiliating and swift defeat? Not only can will rumor spread of Hoshido's failure, but having us let them go back will also positively affect Nohr's surrounding neighbors by letting them think we can be 'reasoned' with when it comes to high value prisoners." He paused here to gauge Garon's reaction.

There was a frown on the King's lips, but he could also see the gears spinning in his head. "Go on."

Mark hissed out a sigh of relief before continuing. "By letting them know about Lord Corrin's battle prowess, Hoshido will now have to think twice before engaging in other battles with us. After all, if he is on the same level as Xander, now they have two very major threats to deal with. Do they take a risk and see if he'll appear, or will they level out their forces and send them in another direction to see if he will flank them while in actuality he's attacking somewhere else entirely? Those will be the kinds of questions that will make them hesitate and eventually lead to their downfall."

King Garon let go of his axe and slowly clapped his hands three times. "Bravo. A very well thought out argument to save not only your Lord, but to sow chaos and discord in our enemies. Something a true tactician can do. Iago, I expect you to take heed of these words or else Mark here will quite possibly take over your job."

The royal tactician growled low and bit his hand to prevent him from screaming out his frustrations.

Corrin let out a sigh of relief before Garon spoke once more.

"They can go…but you must make sure that they never enter battle again."

There was no way out of that request. Though Corrin didn't actually know how to make sure that they couldn't enter battle again without actually…killing them.

"I'm waiting!" King Garon shouted, ready to do the deed himself in Corrin kept hesitating.

Just as he was about to raise Ganglari up, arcane symbols appeared underneath the Hoshidans and vines shot out of them before grabbed and twisting them in directions that a human body should not do.

That was when Corrin heard two loud, ' _SNAP!'_ coming from their bodies before they began screaming in agony.

"Brynhilder? Leon, EXPLAIN." King Garon demanded.

Coming out from the shadows behind Corrin and Mark, Leon closed his book and let the two prisoners fall to the floor while clutching at a broken arm and leg, respectively.

"Father, Corrin's training never included lessons on how to cripple an enemy without killing them in the process. All he could have done was slice off a limb and hope for the best. Also, there was a chance that even if they did live, the cut off limb could put them in shock, not allowing them to spread word as they should. Forgive me for stepping in but I wanted to end this before Corrin made a glaring mistake." Leon explained before bowing so low that his head was touching the ground.

A loud, strangled growl that sounded like it belonged more to a beast than a man came out of King Garon's lips before he stood up. "Very well. Though Corrin, you will have to prove your unwavering loyalty another way. Until I summon you, you are not to leave Windmire under any circumstances. Everyone is now dismissed!" Proclamation finished, he left the arena with a flourished toss of his cape.

Leon, Corrin and Mark all let out varying sighs of relief before Corrin looked at Leon. "Brother…thank you." He said with a true and genuine smile on his face. Though it was quickly replaced with a frown. "Though did you have to cripple them? They were defeated!" he exclaimed while waving at the two Hoshidans that were still in pain.

Leon returned the smile with one of his own before it turned into a smirk. "Yes, well even if you do have the devil's own luck, I'd rather not see it tested against Father. Speaking of which, good job on distracting Father, Mark. That was very quick thinking. As to your second statement, they're clean breaks. All we have to do is snap them back in place and Elise can patch them up."

Mark laughed out loud before slapping Leon on the back. "See? This is why you inherited Brynhilder Leon. Even I would have been hard pressed to break limbs without making it very long and difficult to recover. It's just not how I was trained. So this makes our job a lot easier."

Someone cleared their throat behind them and all three turned around to see the rest of the royal siblings with them.

"Mark, Corrin…that was an excellent and efficient job you did. We had access to the same tome father did, so we saw how your battle went. Little Prince, no matter what anyone says, you have done Nohr proud this day." Xander stated with a proud smile on his face.

Before either could respond, the two boys in question found themselves smothered in Camilla's cleavage once again. "Oh you poor dears! Made to fight for the entertainment of those savages! At least you're not hurt or anything. I don't know what I'd do if they managed to hurt you." She said in a mothering tone that carried a hint of teasing. With a bit of help from Leon, Corrin managed to escape her grasp, but sadly Mark was held all that much harder against the two fleshy pillows attached to their eldest sisters' prodigious chest. At first the amnesic tried to resist, but that just made Camilla squeeze even tighter. So eventually he gave in and that is when she let him go, letting him get some air.

"Oh Mark. So easy to tease and stimulate." Camilla hummed with delight while her brothers were only glad that her affections weren't directed at them. Though Xander thought he might have to have a talk with Mark at one point with how much favor Camilla was showing him.

While all this happened, Elise did the hard job of getting Rinkah and Suzukaze back up. Pulling a small wooden bit she carried on her at all times in case of emergency healing, she had them bite down on it before snapping their broken limbs back into place and healing them. All the while sighing and wishing that healing magic could actually do everything in one go. Sadly, she had to settle for being a magical medical prodigy for learning everything about the human body and directing her magic into having it heal itself. Otherwise a person would just be injected with a bunch of magic and nothing would get done.

"Big Brother! They're all good!" Elise declared after making sure the bones were set and got mended properly.

"Ah good!" Corrin declared before everyone walked over to the two Hosidans that were understandably wary about everything that just happened.

"Well then, I'm sure you have heard what our brother did for your behalf. I hope you are grateful for what he did for you because I assure you nobody else would have." Xander lectured the two, who gave withering glares in response.

"I didn't need your _'help'_ Anyan! I would have rather died an honorable death than have to go back in disgrace like this!" Rinkah snarled.

"I don't have the same attitude as my companion here but I do not appreciate having what happened thrown in my face like that." Suzukaze agreed.

"Feh. Hoshidans and their pride." Leon scoffed. "Pride just gets you killed if you can't back it up. Be grateful our brother is as kind and loving towards everyone as he is."

Rinkah then turned her glare to Corrin and Mark. "You two. King Garon said your names were Corrin and Mark. I swear I will not forget those names, nor will I forgive the humiliation you two placed upon me."

Xander shook his head at her response. "That is enough. I'll have a carriage with some supplies ready for you both in a short while. Take it and never come back or else you WILL die. A second chance is rare enough. A third is never given."

Though both Hoshidans wanted to argue a little more, they realized that there was nothing else to say. Instead, they got up and followed Elise as she waved for the two of them to follow her.

Corrin frowned slightly at how callous the two foes treated their lives. "Does pride really matter that much to them?" he asked.

Xander gave a small nod. "Having fought against them time and time again, I can safely safe that their pride and personal honor mean a lot to them. Much more than their common sense and safety. It's one of the reasons why they kept refusing trade talks and such with Nohr. They always thought that the land that they were on was ancestral and sacred. They are also very, VERY traditional and superstitious. Thus it could not be touched by anyone that wanted to depreciate the value of what it stood for. The breaking point was the final meeting between the then King of Hoshido, Sumeragi and Father about fifteen or so years ago. Ever since we've been in a cold war with his widow, Queen Mikoto."

Upon hearing the Queen's name, another frown appeared on Corrin's lips as a recent memory resurfaced. "That one ninja asked me about a name. Kamui. Was that person important to Hoshido like the Queen is?" he asked.

The surprise on Xander and Camilla's faces could be seen for only but a moment before it was quickly schooled into their usual looks. "Only that he was the Second Prince of Hoshido that died alongside Sumeragi." He said.

Mark frowned at the obvious lie being told but held his tongue. It was very obviously a sore subject with the Crown Prince and First Princess, so if he was going to investigate, he would have to probe carefully on the matter.

Corrin let out a small sigh at Xander's response. "Kamui. Mikoto. Sumeragi. All these names sound so familiar, nostalgic almost. I wish I knew where I've heard them before." He mused.

"Well, it's something we can ponder another day. Come, Father wants to celebrate your ascension and Mark's new position with a Royal Feast." Xander deflected before more of the matter could be spoken of.

 _'Mysteries upon mysteries. I wonder if Lord Corrin's past is more lost than anybody is letting on. Even mine is completely beyond my reach. I'll not let this go. Politics and politeness be damned, I serve him now and no other and if this is bothering him, I'll see it through to the end._

 _Even without the memory loss, there's still a lot of unanswered questions that seem to be coming up. Is it really Hoshidan pride and stubbornness that is causing all this war and strife? What was that look of madness on King Garon earlier? How bad is the food shortages in Nohr that the royal family can afford a feast? Most importantly, how do other countries feel about Hoshido and Nohr in general? I've got my work cut out for me…but it can wait for tomorrow.'_ Mark thought to himself as he joined the royal family on their trek to the dining area.

 _'After all, Lord Corrin can finally be with his family. Now I can only hope someone might be able to assist me in finding out about mine…if I even have one to speak of.'_

"Mark! You're slowing down again!" Corrin called out to him as he realized he had stopped and gotten lost in his thoughts again.

"Coming!" He shouted in return and ran to catch up with them.

' _Yeah. One more day won't hurt.'_

 _A/N: Here is Chapter 3! Once again, not beta'd. Still looking but nobody has sent a response or request! Also, if anyone is wondering, this is 'Mark' Chapter 3, while chronologically being chapter 2 in game._

 _Also, mysteries pile up! King Garon being nice instead of a complete douche! Slander being thrown! Sexual Preference of Zero being questioned and more! Oh my!_

 _In this chapter, I wanted to give people a small taste of the politics that begin to come up in Nohr, as next chapter will go into it in more detail. Nobles see Corrin as a stepping stone to power and will do anything to get on his good side. The royal siblings want to try and help Mark with his situation without letting him know about it._

 _Corrin himself sees just how bad the situation in Nohr really is._

 _Camilla is showing that she definitely sees Mark as more than just a nice person and retainer._

 _A bit more of a character study is going to be shown with the retainers, with only bits and snippets being teased._

 _Aside from that, wonder how many cameos will you realize I placed in here?_

 _Poll is still open! Conquest is currently still having a steady lead! Birthright people might need to get in gear!_

 _Also, don't be afraid to review or send constructive criticism. I know my grammar, tense usage and such isn't the best._

 _Finally, once again, I do NOT own Fire Emblem. Belongs to Nintendo and Intelligent Systems and everyone else that helps make it._


	4. Chapter 4: The True Face of Nohr

Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny

Interlude: The True Face of Nohr

 _"We were to spend about one week in Windmire and Castle Krakenburg. King Garon…intrigued me and disturbed me at the same time. He seemed to show kindness and compassion, but at the same time he could be utterly ruthless and even inhuman. I heard from servants that he was sometimes prone to bouts of mad laughter when he was by himself or with Iago in the throne room. Even more heretical was that supposedly he was not worshipping the Dusk Dragon during those times, but another dragon altogether._

 _It felt like everyone in Nohr had two faces; the one that they showed in public, to those that could affect them positively or negatively and the one that was truly them. I could already see the different faces that were plastered onto the royal siblings during the feast that was being thrown for us, along with policies set in place to help curb the food shortages as much as possible. The other retainers as well had two faces that they showed to others and themselves when they thought they were alone._

 _I still say it is a wonder that Lord Corrin was so innocently naïve about the whole situation that had not sunk in yet. Though that might have been attributed to youthful hope. Even in a bleak world of black and white, he wanted to find the grey pieces that would allow a bridge to be built between two warring nations. I wanted to believe in his dream and I had hoped that cruel reality wouldn't slap him in the face sooner but instead come far later in life._

 _Sadly, the true face of Nohr made it come far too soon for anybody's liking. When we went to explore Windmire, I could already tell that his way of thinking would be changed forever. Whether it was for better or for worse…well that is for history and the people to decide. Either way, I would stick with him until death. That was a promise I intend to keep._

 _-Mark"_

 _Castle Krakenburg: Dining Hall_

True to King Garon's words, a grand feast was held and the royal siblings, their retainers and nobles alike were all invited to mingle. Though as far as Mark could tell, it looked more like all the nobles were divided into separate camps. The more altruistic ones, which was also understandably the smallest group by far, stuck to Princess Elise, who told stories of misadventures that made them laugh while she subtly directed them into making donations or trying to back laws that would help the downtrodden.

The war hawks went towards Prince Leon. They would discuss strategy and various ways they could try to shift the war in Nohr's favor, especially now that he and Lord Corrin were going to be added to the main forces. There wasn't a one that didn't have some sort of cold and calculating look on their face, like all of the world was a play and they were the playwrights. He knew that by the end of the night Leon would probably pay him a visit to discuss the more successful strategies that, in their mind, might actually work.

Crown Prince Xander dealt with the most important nobles and generals. It was not only expected, but needed due to a combination of station, wartime needs and his own personal purviews. Many people tended to be hard set on something one they made up their minds, but there was such charisma oozing from the Crown Prince that anybody who listened couldn't help but want to follow his line of thinking.

Those that followed their libido and the ladies of the court all flocked to Princess Camilla. She certainly looked…different when they were all attending this event. Everyone forwent armor and instead wore suits and dresses made of the finest materials. Thankfully the retainers were exceptions to this due to the stray thought that there would be an assassin stupid enough to try and crash the party. Camilla herself kept her obsidian tiara on her head, but gone were the 'horn' decorations on the side of her head and her scandalous armor was instead replaced with a risqué dress that emphasized her cleavage and large ' _assets'_ that tended to jiggle and bounce with every movement she made.

Camilla was beautiful and there was no denying it. As he took a small sip of wine, even Mark couldn't help but feel a twinge of desire towards her. It was rather painfully obvious that the First Princess had feelings for him, but if it was to make sure that he wasn't a threat to Lord Corrin or if it was something she truly found attractive towards him he did not know. It could even be that she acted like this because she had pity for him due to his amnesia and not even knowing if he had a family or not.

Either way, even with a whispered invitation to come to her room and the room of several other noble women that approached him in the previous hour and a half, he would not step into that political landmine. After all, if there was the barest hint of him deflowering a noble woman before marriage, then truth or lie, his head would quite possibly roll for 'spoiling' said woman in marriage talks.

All the rest of the nobles were warily watching his Lord, who was sharing a story with Felicia and Gunther and both of whom were laughing. His eyes met Gunther's own and there was a tiny nod of his head that told him everything was going to be alright with them there. Being a blank slate, the nobles that were moderates, unsure of where to stand normally, were even more afraid of saying or doing anything that might upset him and in turn upset others. It would fade within a few days, but thankfully it was still a few days of being able to prepare for the inevitable.

As his eyes continued to wander, he felt someone tap his shoulder. Looking behind him, he saw Laslow, Selena and Odin standing next to each other and giving him a neutral look. He raised his goblet slightly as a sign that they could speak whenever they wanted to. It was only proper since he had been declared a 'guest of honor' by King Garon himself.

"Mark. We were wondering if you could join us in a private room for the retainers next door? As the newest royal retainer, there are a few rules and protocols that we will have to inform you about." Laslow stated as his face went into a small smile. If he didn't know better, it almost looked like a smile one put on when they were speaking to an old friend.

"C'mon, get the lead out. We left Peri with Beruka and Effie but I don't like the thought of leaving her to her own devices for too long." Selena both added and insisted.

"YES, come our new comrade! Drinks, mirth and merriment await us! It's all so exciting!" Odin promised.

Having nothing better to do and with Felicia and Gunther both watching over their Lord, Mark had to acquiesce to their request and put his goblet down before following the three into the nearby room.

It was surprisingly quiet and empty when they entered the room, though there was another door further down and voices could be heard coming from the other side, along with the occasional crashing noise that did not sound healthy for the person that caused it. On the table was food more simple in faire than what was being served outside but still delicious nonetheless.

"You know…it makes me wonder, if we have a food shortage going on, then how are we able to have such a lavish feast?" he asked, more to himself than to the others with him. Though Odin was the one that answered his question.

"Ah! It is quite the story for another day, but to make it short our fair Princess Elise came to King Garon with a new law that she thought should be passed after taking notes from the common folk. Whatever we do not eat, the servants gather up all the leftovers and spread them across the slums and market districts, from poorest to healthiest. That way all food has a chance of being equally eaten instead of being left to rot." The blonde mage exclaimed.

Selena took over the explanation from there. "The nobles initially scoffed at it, but King Garon saw how wise that plan could be. A lot of the nobles tend to overestimate how much they eat and before the law was enacted some years back, too much waste was being spread and it helped kill people from hunger faster. We may not be able to always make sure someone has food on their plate, but when morale started spreading across the nation and standing armies, King Garon made it an official decree for this practice to spread."

Mark gave a pleased hum at that. "Princess Elise really is too kind for the horrible world this seems to be. Even if King Garon used this as a political ploy to keep the morale of common folk soldiers high."

The other three nodded before shooting small looks at each other. Eventually Laslow decided to speak up. "While we have you here. Please, tell me how things are going at home?" he asked, perking up and dropping all airs.

"Yeah, I know we haven't been there for a long time, but I really didn't expect to see them sending you after us. Did any of the others come with you? Do you have any letters from our families?" Selena asked, before blushing at how eager she both looked and sounded. "N-not that it matters to me of course."

"It has been awhile since I could use my true calling as Owain Dark, but come! Justice Cabal member Morgan, share with us the tale of how you got here!" Odin shouted, but due to the noise in both rooms next to them nobody would have heard a thing.

Mark folded his arms and gave them all a look that they couldn't decipher due to the hood covering his eyes, but the frown was telling. "Morgan? Home? Families? Do…you guys know me? Cause I've never seen you three before. Or at least…I don't think I have."

Hearing that response had sad and bitter looks spread amongst their faces.

"If that was a joke Morgan that was in poor taste, though I don't doubt we deserved that one." Laslow stated with hardened eyes.

Selena had a vein that was ready to burst on her forehead. "That's a really low blow." She hissed.

Odin, or Owain as he revealed himself, was more thoughtful. "Guys…I think he might be telling the truth." He said after snapping his fingers as if he just remembered something extremely important. Though when Selena grabbed him by the collar and dragged him to be angry face to nervous face with her, he knew he'd better make his explanation quick or else he'd REALLY get it from her.

"SPILL. NOW."

Putting his hands up in surrender, Selena let Owain fall onto the floor with no fanfare. He brushed the dirt that came onto him before standing up. "Ahem. My Lord Leon has recently been asking me to help him study mind magic. When I asked him why he said it was part of a pet project of his. He said that someone Corrin knew was suffering from acute amnesia and no conventional methods worked alongside weak memory restoration spells and potions."

The silence that followed was damning for several good reasons. The three of them knew how Morgan had already lost a good portion of his memories once when he arrived in Ylisse to help Robin and Tiki. To lose the rest of them and all the new memories he had made in the process? That was like the First Dragons were spitting in his face collectively.

"Oh gods. I think I'm gonna be sick." Selena muttered while putting a hand to her mouth to stop herself from hyperventilating at the Bolganone spell that was dropped on them.

Morgan, or Mark, just crossed his arms together. "I knew Leon was poking around at me when he thought I was asleep, but trying to get my memories back? That's very nice of him I'll admit." He admitted before shrugging. "Though whether or not I am who you say I am or if what you're saying is true it sounds like I have a lot of catching up to do."

Laslow shook his head. "'Catching up' is the least of our concerns right now. To know that you're suffering from a more severe bout of amnesia compared to the first time around is a scary thought. To forget all three of us. Your friends, your kingdom, your family…it's a horror beyond description." He tried to reach out to his friend, now stranger, but said friend placed his hand up.

"Please…for now, let us drop the unpleasant moment we are going through. Just call me Mark and we can start again from there until I catch up once more." Mark offered with a smile on his face. The same brave smile he always put up when on the inside he was screaming out in internal suffering.

The other three knew that look well back in Ylisse whenever Morgan tried to think about memories involving his mother until they made amends over the fact that he would never truly remember and started over in that way too.

Selena, catching her breath, could only grit her teeth and held back the curses and screams that she wanted to let out while nodding.

Odin looked downcast, a harsh difference from his normal and enthusiastic self but he knew when to keep silent on a matter. In this case, there was nothing he could really do to help and never before had he wished some of his tall tales and fantastical spells that he invented were indeed real.

Though not a one of them wanted to 'start over'. They only wanted their friend back…and they wanted to know who took him from them.

 _Next Day: Castle Krakenburg – Corrin's Quarters_

It was with a start that Corrin awoke the next day. His face was flush and heavy as he placed a hand on his face to make sure he was still there, in one piece. Horrible nightmares had plagued him all night long with some being more vicious than others. A war that had gone completely out of control. Castles burning, people screaming and monsters crawling across the earth. All while a giant shadow loomed over everything. A great serpentine creature unlike anything he had ever seen before.

"I am never drinking that heavily again." He swore to himself, having downed almost 10 goblets of wine throughout several hours of talking, dancing and watching his family interact in the court. They all shared looks at him every now and again, hoping that he was following what they were doing and learning from it. Elise and Xander were the more earnest of the two, while Leon and Camilla weaved their words together intricately so you didn't know you were caught in their trap until after it was sprung and had no choice but to continue following them lest political ruin follow close by.

He had definitely picked up on when to take a hardliner stance on things that he did not agree with yet at the same time he knew that he could give up some pieces of policy that he wanted to implement in order to get the collective whole of it passed. In his spare time in the Northern Fortress he had drafted up several mock laws that would do things like lower the taxes on the poorest while subtly raising the taxes on the richest to compensate piece by piece over a period of several years so they wouldn't catch on until it was far too late to make a difference.

Corrin wasn't stupid though since he knew the nobles and King Garon himself would obviously see through it but it was nice to dream about it while he could. _'Well, time to see what I can do today. Father told me I wasn't to leave Windmire so maybe I can join one of the others in their daily routine.'_ He thought to himself.

He never actually got to see what his brothers and sisters did when they were at the castle but he assumed all of them save Elise didn't actually have all that much free time between missions and the council meetings between nobles. Then again, if they were too busy that they couldn't spare any time with him, he could see how their retainers acted. Father had officially assigned Mark to be one of his two court appointed retainers after all, so it was good to see how he compared to them.

Though he wish he could consider Felicia and Gunther among that number, sadly they were only considered to be his personal maid and guardian, respectively. They could fight a battle or two if need be, but Felicia only knew mostly self-defensive and assassination techniques combined with her Ice Tribe fighting style while Gunther's age prevented him from being the fierce man that he once was.

Changing into a more formal attire consisting of a fluffed up white shirt with a ruffled collar, a dark black and purple vest, stylish long pants and hardy boots he could safely say he felt noble enough to wander without making a complete and utter fool of himself. Tucked into his vest was also a throwing knife and a self-defense dagger just in case. He didn't plan into getting into any fights, but if dragged into one he could certainly end it.

Just as he finished up, he heard a knock on his door. "Lord Corrin? I'm coming in now." Came a feminine voice that he knew all too well.

"Ah Felicia! Please enter but lock the door behind you. I'm afraid I'll probably need a woman's advice for this." He joked, though secretly his mind was thinking other, less noble thoughts. _'Well, they can wait a few hours more.'_

The pink haired maid did just as instructed and bowed deeply before him before getting a good look at his non-armored outfit which had brought a deep crimson to her cheeks. In a woman's perspective, Corrin cut a very dashing figure with his clothes and they complimented his figure nicely.

Though a slight frown came to her lips as she thought something was missing. Looking at his neck, she realized what he needed and shuffled over to the closet that had been assigned to him and pulled out a bow from the drawer of them that laid in a chest on the floor. It was a deep, azure blue and she thought it would reflect his hair nicely while not taking away from the black, purple and white too much.

"I think this is what's missing." She informed him as she attempted to place it on him properly. Though her clumsiness started to finally come into play and her fingers fumbled and jumbled about, making a mockery of the item and all the while Corrin chuckled.

"I think it goes like this." He whispered since they were so close. Placing his hands above her own, he gently guided her to the proper way of tying the bowtie that Jakob and Flora had drilled into him. All the while his eyes were drawn towards Felicia's cute, flustered face. How her full lips parted and gasped each time their fingers kept brushing.

Neither of them realized how closely they were leaning into each other until their lips met. That was when Felicia literally leaped back. "EEK! I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" she apologized in a rushed tone. She cursed her weakness against how charming and caring…how handsome her lord was. Though it wasn't like it was the first time they had shown such deep affection towards one another, normally at the very least it was when Corrin was in not so flattering clothes that kept her from wanting to ravish him on the spot.

Corrin, for his part was equally flustered at his lack of control. His and Felicia's…intimacies were a rather well-kept secret between them. Nobody knew save Mark and that was because he literally had the luck of walking in on them when they were fooling around.

They were quite careful and Felicia was still a maiden, but it didn't mean that they couldn't express their feelings in other ways. They knew that unless she was released from being a prisoner their love for one another could never be official. Yet they were young, foolish and passionate which was a disastrous combination.

Which was why Corrin decided for once to take some initiative and pulled Felicia back into him. "There's a reason why I asked you to lock the door." He whispered huskily into her ear as her mind was quickly beginning to shut down at the rather poor attempt at seduction that nonetheless worked FAR too well on her. "We have no Flora, no Jakob and no Gunther to possibly walk in. My Siblings and anybody else would have to announce themselves but at this time in the morning I don't think we'll be distracted anytime soon."

Felicia was completely gone mentally at this point and was riding on instinct as her breath became to come out rapidly from how fast her heart was beating. Despite her cold body, the warm flames of her heart refused to be quelled. Which is why all she did was tilt her neck slightly and placed her hand on his chest while pressing herself against him, giving permission for their tryst to begin.

 _Outside of Corrin's Room, twenty minutes later_

' _Dear Dragons above that was one crazy night. Too much information going through my head too soon. Laslow, Selena and Odin…or Owain rather, seem to know about me or at least someone that looks like me. They were quite firm in their insistence that I was indeed this 'Morgan' character that they knew from their homeland and yet I just feel…nothing. A deep and empty void whenever I see them. Is it due to my lost memories? Is it maybe that we weren't as 'friendly' as they let on? Though they were quick to make amends, this warrants a second opinion.'_

After what felt like a long and productive night of 'intelligence gathering' as he would dub it, Morgan felt a light headache as he sorted out everything that those three told him. Things that sounded right and felt right, but he couldn't verify that they were right. He wasn't going to bet on who he once was on the opinion of three people that claimed to know him without any actual proof that showed otherwise. As expected, they all said that it resided in their homeland of which they very much made sure not to say its name. The way their eyes shuffled back and forth at certain parts of each story that they gave spoke volumes of their character.

They were hiding something and they were hiding something very big. He doubted that it would harm anybody in the long run but they were still lying about their origins nonetheless to those that they swore fealty to which made him angry but strangely frustrated and sad at the same time. For them to trust him, a complete stranger in his point of view, over their own sworn liege just felt wrong. Which is why he came to Lord Corrin's room for a talk that would make sense to his mixed up world currently.

Though just as he was about to knock a muffled cry reached his ears followed by a fit of giggles.

' _Oh! Lord Corrin~ *Gasp* Don't touch there! You know that I'm sensitiv-AH!'_

Upon hearing that he made an immediate about face and sought out Lord Leon for a rather lengthy chess match.

' _It can wait, it can wait…you will not walk in on them in the same state as you did a year back.'_ He chanted in his mind as he tried for once to actually FORGET what he just heard.

 _Castle Krakenburg-Dining Hall_

 _Two Hours Later_

According to the magical timepieces that laid across the castle and rooms, it was currently nine in the morning. Well into the day that most had gotten started to earlier and yet each of the royals were only just sitting down for breakfast.

Unlike the extremely heavy feast from last night, their meal was a much lighter affair. Fluffy biscuits, eggs in a variety of style and several fruits littered the plates that were served onto the table alongside a knife and a slab of freshly churned butter. Normally some form of bacon or sausage would be served as well but King Garon personally advised for a healthier dish compared to the fatty foods that they gorged on last night.

"My Children, how do you fare this morning?" The King asked, looking at each of them from oldest to youngest. Alongside them, each of their retainers stood at attention.

"Good Father. I've managed to convince some of the hold-outs from the council to accept my proposal for a quick supply raid on a Hoshidan garrison that is under-manned near the border. If all goes well, we will gain medical supplies, some much needed grain and other non-perishable meals to last us for several weeks." Xander reported.

"I've gotten some…interesting rumors from the ladies of the court and the more loose-lipped men that I will privately give you to verify later Father." Camilla stated, being next in line.

Corrin was next, though he didn't have much to add. "I'm afraid to say that as the 'new person' to the court, nobody was willing to talk to me yet out of personal fear to their own agendas. I did make several attempts to walk in on them but they all made excuses." He said in a despondent tone while Mark patted his back carefully to cheer him up.

Leon's answer was curt and straight to the point. "Nothing new I'm afraid aside from several false leads on the Hoshidan infiltration routes. One actually panned out but they had long since abandoned it and all information that was saved was outdated and useless."

Elise was last, as was expected since she was the youngest out of everyone there. "I managed to get some of the nobles to agree to put more money into the royal coffers to make more buildings for the homeless to go to. There have been a lot of complaints lately that those that…don't make it are beginning to spread disease around since nobody wants to clear them out." Though the news was sad and her face reflected that sadness all too well, the fire that was in her eyes said that she would continue to whatever she could to help.

With each report, Garon nodded. "Some gains, some losses and all of which is to be expected. Xander, do not go to that garrison personally. Send out the reconnaissance squadron and pair them up with some of your troops. I will need you here personally for several matters later today during the council meeting. Camilla, I will expect you in the throne room after this to disclose that information." Both of the eldest nodded at receiving their orders.

To Corrin, he gave both a bemused yet saddened look. "Corrin, the nobles will be testing you soon enough. You are a Galaronis and you will conquer them as easily as any battlefield. Until then, I suggest you keep away from the ladies of the court next time there are some dances. I know from what Xander and Camilla have told me that you are a bit too polite to the fairer sex, which is to be expected, but let them run over you so that you'll never make plenty of regrets. Do NOT follow in my early years that closely." He stated while tapping at his neck.

Corrin looked bewildered at the king before grabbing a nearby knife and taking a look at his neck from the reflection. Sure enough, several love bites from his time with Felicia earlier were present and all but Camilla were holding in quiet laughter when he finally realized this.

Camilla…Camilla had a smile on her face, but it was so fake that everyone feared the poor souls that she would be going after in her spare time.

Once they had their fun, King Garon continued. "Leon, have Zero try to expand his network a little more. Take no more than twenty gold bars with you in case some exchanges need to be made. We NEED to end this infiltration line before it could possibly ruin us."

Leon bowed lightly as he made a mental note to tell Zero to not try to spend it all at the whorehouses again like he did last time. There were reasons why they were considered to be double edged swords when it came to information.

"As for you Elise, I thank you for your contribution in Nohr's upkeep. As you are not needed in the council meeting today with the others, take Corrin into Windmire with Mark. Show them around so that you won't have to beg me to do so later." With that, King Garon stood up and nodded to all of his children, which essentially gave them permission to move on with their day. Camilla was quick to follow him out of the room while everyone else turned to Corrin, who was now extremely uncomfortable.

"Well, well. I didn't expect our brother to be so popular with the ladies." Leon began with a teasing grin.

"You must tell me which ones spoke to you since several of them cannot be trusted. Especially Lord Lundenburg and his daughter Celestia. She's known in private circles as 'The Vampire' for a reason." Xander asked seriously.

"I wonder if Big Bro's in love! Oh it would be so romantic if it was!" Elise swooned.

Corrin shook his head rapidly at all of this. "No, no! Please, peace. It was just some people getting more…frisky than I was comfortable with. I promptly went away the next dance and moved to someone else. Though there wasn't much I could do without making a scene since they always tried to control our movements towards the main dance floor." He lied and while he felt bad about it, better a white lie than to get Felicia in trouble with Camilla.

Mark raised an eyebrow at Corrin's answer but turned his head away and pretended to know nothing. A short while later the other retainers sat down as the servants returned with their lesser, but still filling breakfast portions. Though in Effie's case, she got a full five course feast spreading out from her side of the table all the way to the empty end of the other side.

Unlike the Royals that were currently nettling Corrin for the 'mystery girls' and their rather quiet breakfast, talk between the retainers were much more lively and animated. Mark was impressed that Laslow, Selena and Odin pretended that what happened last night didn't even exist and instead just made small talk with others, such as Laslow failing to get even a word out of Effie stuffing her face when he invited her to some tea time later on in the day. Peri was viciously forking and knifing her eggs, much to Selena's private disgust and Odin and Arthur were getting into an argument over 'Justice vs. Avenging'. Zero and Beruka were the only ones that were actually paying attention to him and Zero was making an overtly sexual gesture with how he was licking his lips while looking at him and Beruka was just plain staring. He was content with that since he could ignore the former and enjoy the peace provided by the latter by the lack of conversation.

That was, until Laslow cleared his throat. "Well now, I do believe we've forgotten our manners here. Let us have a toast to our new comrade, Mark. Tasked with protecting Lord Corrin, he joins us in the illustrious ranks of the highest honored soldiers in Nohr. Your skill cannot be denied by anyone and your status as a royal retainer means that on the battlefield your rank is just below that of our charges. With this great power, however, comes great responsibility. Your life is no longer your own to live. With the oath that you swore, you must put the health and safety of the one you swore to protect over everything else, no matter the cost. Though do not think that those that are under you are expendable either. For discontent breeds disloyalty and you might find yourself abandoned when you don't expect it. Take care to walk that fine line Mark and may the Dusk Dragon bless your cause."

All the other retainers and even the Royals lifted up their wine glasses in a toast.

" **WELCOME MARK!"**

Mark himself looked a bit bashful at all the attention he was receiving but there was nothing he could really do because everything Laslow said was true. He had a lot of power, both his own and the power that his new status gave him. He could not afford to gain a swelled head over this.

"Thank you everyone. I will do my utmost to prove the faith that King Garon has entrusted to me." A humble response from a humble person.

With everything out of the way and being finished with teasing her brother, Elise clapped her hands together and linked her arm with Mark's, somehow crossing the table in the blink of an eye to do so. "Alright, time for you and Corrin to come with me. While Xander and Leon are stuck in that stuffy council meeting, we're gonna go see the sights!" she declared.

Arthur and Effie, who had just finished her entire morning meal much to the horrors of those that had not known her eating habits, stood up as well and went towards the armory to get their gear.

Corrin, grateful for the reprieve from Xander's consistent demands for names stood up and quickly joined them.

"Where are we going to go Elise?" he asked while secretly stuffing some bread into his outer vest pockets since she wasn't giving him much time to eat.

The Princess put a finger to her lips in thought. "Hmm…I think Section Seven would be best. I often go there to volunteer. Plus it has been awhile since I've been to Zack and Aerith's flower stand. I'm sure that also the Strifes are wondering where I've been." She said, mostly to herself.

"Section Seven, Princess Elise?" Mark asked.

"Oh. That's right, you two haven't been here. Windmire is divided up into 'Sections' to make it easier to tell people where to go. The lower the number, the lower the quality of living is. As there's eight sections, seven is pretty down there but they are some tough customers and two families help out a lot. The Fair's and the Strife's. The Fair's own a flower stand that I put myself in disguise in and help sell and spread them out! The Strife's own a bar and delivery business. Mr. Strife is pretty quiet but his wife Tifa is super nice! As for the Sections…well, one through three are the noble and high end quarters. Four and five are completely dedicated to the merchants and commerce and as such, they're kind of unique in that they're each placed on one end of Windmire instead of next to each other to help promote a healthy dose of traveling. The rest is the commoners and poverty sections. Section eight is a place I don't go often since its where Zero and Beruka often go when they're on and off duty and that's just bad news in general." Elise explained.

"Thank goodness for that! You wouldn't survive there for too long, Lady Elise!" Zero cried out to them, having been eavesdropping.

"So we go there to see what the people of Nohr truly look like outside of all the nobles we've been meeting." Mark summarized.

"Yep!" Elise agreed while beaming at Mark. "Now then, let's go!" With a hop and a skip, Elise dragged the two out of the room, leaving the rest of the retainers and her other brothers behind.

The second they were out the door, those that were left behind noticed something that had been off but they did not question it.

"Hmm…has anybody seen Felicia and Gunther?" Xander asked.

 _Windmire – Section Seven Slums_

 _Noon_

Gunther was taking a rare moment of peace to himself and going to one of his favorite little haunts in all of Windmire; the Seventh Heaven Tavern. He had known the last three previous proprietors and they've each passed down that he was to get free drinks and service for his deeds in protecting in the realm time and time again. The first moment he could, he got out of Castle Krakenburg, unable and unwilling to face his personal demons that laid there for too long. For each time he walked along the hallowed halls, he remembered that argument all too well. The denial of a gift that many would start a war for. The personal insult that the King took to the denial. The burning of his home…his family. That fit of madness that overtook King Garon was the final straw and he personally saw to his own self-exile for decades until he was forced back into service to watch over Corrin.

In many ways, he saw the lad as a son that he had lost. Innocent, eager and willing to learn what he had to teach. Yet for all of that, he couldn't help the lingering resentment that built up each time he remembered that Corrin was Nohrian Royalty. That was why he drowned out all the bad memories and sorrow here under the watchful eyes of the newest owner, Tifa Strife. The young woman was…blessed in a way that even Camilla could find envious. She could have enlisted in the Nohrian forces if she had chosen to do so, but instead stayed with her childhood sweetheart when he was lamed by a strike from Prince Ryoma himself and lived to tell about it. Between the couple, they were more than enough to handle the peacekeeping that Section Seven desperately needed at times.

"Alright Gunther, I'm cutting you off. That's five mugs of the strong stuff. Any more and you're likely to get poisoned." The proprietress informed him as he was about to call out for another refill.

He had been so out of touch with his musings he hadn't even realized the small collection of mugs that he had gathered at his table. What he did realize was the small buzz that was gathering in his mind, a sure sign that he had definitely had enough for one day.

Just as he was about to ask for the bill, the doors burst open and a cheerful looking Princess Elise walked in, humming a small ditty to herself as a weary looking Corrin and Mark followed soon after. No doubt they had been subjected to Princess Elise's method of exploring every nook and cranny as they walked around Windmire.

All three saw him there and waved. "So this is where you were Gunther. I didn't know you were that heavy of a drinker. Usually you hold yourself back so much at the Fortress." Corrin noted as he saw the collection of mugs next to him.

Gunther let out a loud, booming and hearty laugh at his observation. "Well at the Northern Fortress I was always on duty. It wouldn't be very becoming of a veteran like me to indulge in bad habits like that. At least here there's going to be more people watching you than just us." He explained.

Mark raised an eyebrow and Gunther schooled his face into a peaceful look of serenity from having a good drink. He was wary that the younger man would probe deeper into this but instead he looked away and Gunther gave out a small sigh of relief as he went back to his original task of grabbing his money pouch and putting several gold coins on the table. It was by and away far more than what he got was worth but the company and quality of service he had received over the years made up for it.

"Yes, well we all need a vacation sometime and I do believe you are ten years overdue for that." Corrin joked before he found himself being spun around and observed under the critical eye of a rather beautiful brunette. After a few seconds and not a word exchanged between them, she broke the stare and gave a nod of approval.

"Yep, he definitely does seem like the brother you always go on about Elise. Distant stare and all." She said while the princess positively beamed in pride as she showed off Corrin like one would a pure-bred horse or dog.

With the distraction provided to him, Gunther took the time to quietly exit and head back to the castle. Loathe as he was to have to go back to that dreadful place, he had a feeling that his old bones would be in for a comfortable afternoon nap soon enough.

 _Section Seven – Alleyways_

 _Thirty Minutes Later_

A very weary looking Corrin and a bemused Mark continued to follow Elise throughout the sprawling maze that was Section Seven. As they had been stuck at the Tavern for a good half hour, it gave Effie and Arthur the time to catch up to them before taking their positions as her guard. It made an interesting scene for the commoners, seeing what they thought was a little girl leading around several taller and much more mature looking people around.

"Ah! We're here! Ms. Fair, I'm back!" Elise called out after explaining about how a good chunk of the Section lead into an underground aqueduct and many homes had been carved into the bedrock, making it very hard for others to break into when they needed iron doors and bars as doors to hold up the entryways.

Running into one of said homes, Elise brought out a modestly dressed woman dressed in a pink dress and a red overcoat. She, like the owner of the tavern they had just left, also had long brown hair that was tied into a modest ponytail and gave off a very warm aura that instantly made everyone feel welcome.

"Really Elise. You can call me Aerith you know. Dragons above Zack has tried to get you to do so many times." The woman chided as she handed the Princess a basket full of flowers that were beautiful to look at and rather unusual to see in a place that didn't get much sunlight at all. When she looked up from her task she saw that Elise was not alone for once and with two new faces as well.

"So are you going to introduce me to your new guests?" she asked as she handed the Princess a little bandanna to help cover up some of her hair to make her stand out less while doing her volunteer work.

"Oh! The one in the armor is my big brother that I love the most, Corrin! The one in the robes next to him is his new retainer, Mark! Gentlemen, this is the owner of the flower shop I help out, Aerith Fair!" Elise exclaimed as she grabbed a dress that was offered to her and shuffled into a nearby room to get changed.

"So you're the Corrin she's always over the moon about with her fantastical stories?" Aerith asked before giving a small giggle when looking at Corrin. "From what she had told me, you're supposed to be a seven foot tall knight with a blade as big as your body that goes out and slays dragons."

Mark and Corrin both let out chuckles at this while Effie and Arthur fussed over Elise's clothes that she had changed into. "Sorry to disappoint. It would be interesting though to slay an evil dragon, but I doubt that will happen anytime soon." He apologized, though a bit of unease quickly flowed through him as he remembered that nightmarish serpent from his nightmares.

A slight shuffling noise got their attention brought to Elise, who had forgone her princess outfit for something much more…plain. Yet it suited her perfectly and if nobody had known who she was, she could easily be passed as someone that 'looked' like Princess Elise. It was a good enough disguise that Mark had to applaud her new look while Elise gave a curtsey in response.

"Alright. I'm gonna go make my rounds. Effie, Arthur, go make yourselves scarce. Mark and Corrin, just follow at a distance and see how the commoners really act." Elise ordered, hand on her hips to show how serious she was being, but it fell flat and instead just made her look adorable.

Still, all four played along and got down on one knee and bowed as if she was a queen. "Yes, your highness." Corrin and Mark said in a dry tone of voice, while Effie and Arthur said it with true feeling.

Puffing out her chest with pride, Elise gave a wave to Aerith while everyone followed save Mark who lingered behind slightly.

"Can I help you?" Aerith asked in a tone that once again made him want to just let down all of his guard around her and spill his life's story to her.

"I'm just wondering, how can you grow all of these flowers in such poor conditions for them?" he asked politely.

"Oh, well we actually have some good soil quality here. So I take it to a side room here in the store, plant them and use a bit of magic to make it seem as if it was sunny and warm outside. It's a rather simple one that I made up while I was in the mage's corps before I dropped out. They wanted to use my spells for less…practical means." She said, though her smile became much more brittle towards the end.

 _'That's hardly a simple spell if it's supposed to recreate a miniature sun for several hours every day. Though they probably wanted to convert it into a sort of torture magic.'_ Mark thought to himself before giving Aerith a nod, not voicing his thoughts to her so he could respect her privacy.

"Thank you for indulging my curiosity." He told her and gave her a small bow before exiting the store and seeing Corrin waiting for him right nearby.

"I'm sorry I made you wait." He said to his friend.

Corrin shook his head. "Don't worry about it. Let's just go and find…Elise…oh dear." He began to order before realizing that Elise, Effie and Arthur were nowhere to be found.

While they could have stayed there, they didn't know just how long they would be waiting and Corrin eventually decided to take the risk of retracing their footsteps. While Section Seven wasn't the most complicated of places, there was a lot of twists and turns that they had to memorize and with Elise talking to them nearly every second of the way it wasn't long before the duo got themselves hopelessly lost.

"Well…this happened." Corrin said with a sigh, ruffling his hair as he wondered where they were supposed to go now. The earlier ambient light brought about by a multitude of wooden posts with lamps was gone, leaving a rather eerie atmosphere about them as they continued to walk further along the path they found themselves going in.

It was very easy to see that they were no longer in Section Seven as the streets were dirtier, the distrustful looks they were receiving increased and the bloodlust and despair were so thick they could almost taste it.

"I'm starting to believe that we might have wandered into Section Eight, Lord Corrin." Mark stated, his hand reaching into his coat pocket and subtly touching the fire tome that was within in, ready to channel magic at a moment's notice.

"I agree with you. Let's make ourselves scarce. I don't like the looks we're getting here." Corrin noted as they increased their pace slightly, but not enough to make it obvious that they were nervous.

They didn't have to walk very long before they noticed that they were being followed. It was only one person at first, but with each and every corner they turned, another was added to the group until five raggedy and almost soulless looking people were following, live steel easily visible amongst the sunken cheeks and desperation flashing across their eyes.

Mark and Corrin silently looked at each other, using their body language to speak in lieu of words. After a minute or so of doing this, they nodded in unison and quickly ducked into the nearest alley they passed by that had crates of all sorts lined up around it. Using the darkness as their cover, Corrin used his dark clothing as a means of camouflaging himself into the shadows while Mark's naturally dark cloak meant that he could just hug a nearby wall and he wouldn't be easily seen.

Surely enough, their followers ran into the alleyway and couldn't see them with just their eyes alone. As none of them seemed to be magic users, they just ran ahead with their rusted looking weapons now held aloft, in search of easy prey.

"Vultures, the lot of them." Mark said in disgust as they moved out of the alley quickly a few minutes later.

"Yes. Some of their conditions were undoubtedly due to their own carelessness, but I have to wonder when was the last time they even properly ate some food? Wasn't there the law Elise helped to pass?" Corrin asked.

Nodding his head to where they just left, Mark gave his observation. "I'm very sure that they pass the food along down here, but no doubt some gang of thugs like these are hoarding all of it to themselves and mugging those that got some before they did."

Corrin grimaced at the thought of the greedy few putting their needs ahead of the masses but there wasn't much they can do. Windmire was just too big to put security measures in place everywhere to ensure that this didn't happen.

Before they could continue onwards, a small cough caught their attention. Two people, a small boy and a taller girl that were no doubt siblings from their identical blonde hair, came shuffling around the corner.

They looked as if they had seen much better days. Their bodies were so shrunken and misshapen from lack of food and nutrients. In fact, Corrin would thought them skeletons if it wasn't clearly showing the flesh on their bones, little as it was. Both were dressed in little more than rags that couldn't give them any sort of warmth from the chilly air that pervaded the area from how damp and dank it was.

The little boy took a few steps before collapsing and his sister quickly getting on her knees to check on him. His compassion compelling him to help these people, Corrin immediately ran forward with Mark on his heels. They quickly reached the two and attempted to help as best as they could.

"Miss. Miss are you two alright?" he asked in what he hoped was a kind tone. Though from the venomous look she gave him the rhetorical question was not appreciated.

"What do YOU think you damn noble?!" she snarled hatefully at him, carefully cradling her little brother into her arms. His corrective lenses, the last gift their mother gave them before she had vanished, were cracked and dirty, all the better that he couldn't see anyone.

"Miss. We just want to help. Do you need food? Water? Does your brother need medical attention?" he asked, giving a quick look at Mark who was pulling out a vulnerary he had on his person. While it was meant to be a quick patch-job to internal wounds it also was, at its most desperate, a liquid meal substitute in that it would make sure that you didn't die of hunger for at least a few more precious hours.

The woman looked at the vulnerary skin like it was poison and swatted it away from them. "No. No! I won't be tricked again by you people! You already took away my home, our family! You tried to take away my brother! You tried to break me! NO MORE!" she shouted hysterically.

In a more normal town, this would have caused a ruckus and drawn a crowd. In Windmire's Section Eight, however, this was par the course and ignored by everyone around them, to Corrin's disbelief.

Reaching into his magical pouch (and thanking Felicia for having the foresight to make sure he had it on him before he left), Corrin pulled out a piece of bread that he had saved from the morning's breakfast before Elise had dragged him away. "Please. It's not poison. Look." Corrin pleaded as he broke off a small piece of it and ate it himself. "Give it to him."

The teenaged girl looked at them distrustfully still, but eventually relented and grabbed the bread.

"Carl? Carl, it's me, Ada. Open your eyes." She cooed in a soft voice to her younger brother.

"Sis?" the now named Carl moaned weakly.

"Yes. Yes Carl, it's me. These nice gentleman gave us some real bread. Please, eat. You haven't eaten in over a week now!" Ada cried out, handing the loaf to him. His young hands rose up slightly before falling, unable to do even that small a gesture.

"Sis…I see…Mom." Carl croaked out. All three of their eyes went wide in alarm at those words. Mark turned around, attempting to see where that vulnerary went but it was gone. In their distracted state, they didn't see someone steal it right off of the ground and kept walking away with it. That was the only one he had on him. He knew Corrin didn't bring one with him either because they weren't attempting to get into anything that would have involved needing one. Now, they could only watch in abject horror at what was unfolding.

"Carl! No, no no no, stay with me!" Ada pleaded, tears falling down her face as Corrin continued to look on, his eyes a thousand yards away as his face was clearly terrified over his powerlessness.

"Sis…Mom's calling…I wanna…see…" Carl tried to get out, but eventually he stopped speaking…and his body went limp.

"Carl? CARL?!" Ada cried out in pure agony. Corrin and Mark both saw something break in the girls eyes. Something irreparable and inconsolable was just completely and utterly destroyed. All they could do was watch as she sobbed and held onto her younger brother's dead body, calling out his name all the while as she too fell to the ground, having no energy left of her own.

"Carl…I'm so sorry….big sis will be seeing you soon." She promised as she laughed in manic heartbreak until she could no longer do so. Until she too, no longer breathed.

It was then that Mark knew that they were drawing too much unwanted attention and they had to leave, no matter how painful it was to leave the brother and sister dead in the middle of the road.

"Lord Corrin, I'm sorry but we have to go, now!" he hissed as he tried to pull his charge up, but found him almost as heavy as a led weight as he could only stare at the two. One dying from hunger, the other from a broken heart.

"Mark…why…why couldn't I do anything?" he asked as he ignored all of his friends' struggles to pull him off of the ground.

" _This…is why I said Lady Elise wouldn't last."_

If it wasn't for the fact that Mark knew who that voice belonged to, he would have obliterated the person that just spoke who came out of the alleyway that they had run out of just a few minutes prior.

"Zero." The name was hissed between his teeth but that was more out of distraction than anything actual distaste.

The eyepatch wearing assassin gave a quick look at the situation before addressing Corrin. "You and Lady Elise are too good for this sort of place. Here, there is no law and order. Just power and those smart enough to bend it for their own personal use. Be it to hoard food, medicine, drugs, spies or other such things chances are you'll find the worst of the worst."

From the tears that blurred his vision, Corrin still managed to give Zero a rather nasty look as he pointed to the dead siblings. "What of them? What of the people that cannot eat? That cannot work due to age or injury?" he asked.

Used to such a sight, Zero shrugged callously. "They get eaten by the strong. That is all there is to it. Though I do know them. They were the last of the old Noble Family. The Clovers I believe."

Mark's eyes widened at that name, having done his research on the various noble's weeks prior. "You mean they're related to Relius Clover, the Faceless Creator?" he asked.

Zero gave a serious nod of his head, giving no sign of joke or amusement at that name. "The one and same. The man that mastered the Dark Arts to such a degree that he even sacrificed his wife for his research, making the perfect, emotionless hunting tool. His first success since she never tired, never ate, never slept, never acknowledged pain. All that mattered were the simple commands given to her. The only real execution that King Garon gave to his own pet noble that was not a traitor just for the sheer blasphemy of what he had done. At least until the Queen of Hoshido put up her passive barrier that forced the ever expanding demand of their creation."

Mark's eyes hardened at the history lesson. "The children did not ask for this."

Zero nodded. "You're right. The people did though. After all, Relius couldn't have gotten all of his test subjects from graveyards and battlefields. It turned out only the live ones that were on the brink of death could be manipulated into Faceless. I'm surprised Sir Gunther didn't tell you more, considering he was there the day the place was raided."

Corrin's eyes widened. "G…Gunther did what?" he asked, scarcely believing what he was hearing in how his mentor and protector had a directly had into what would serve as the doom for the two dead children in front of him.

 _'Is...Is this what I've been wanting to fight for all my life? To allow people to starve and force them to do the bidding of those stronger than them? To make the rich richer and the poor poorer? To make people starve and those with excess continue to gorge on what is left of our hard earned food? Gunther...do I even know you anymore if you're capable of forcing children into exile like this? Is this what Nohr is really like?'_ he thought to himself, unable to believe what he was being told.

At this, Zero grinned. "At the time, he was King Garon's most prized soldier. Mind you all the information I am giving you is second hand, but it was from Lord Leon's lips so take it as you will. It was one of the few battles that King Garon himself rode into before the Concubine wars since I believe only Xander was born at that point. Regardless, he, Iago and Gunther lead the army into the castle that housed the Clover's. Relius knew what was coming and he had all of the Faceless that he had made waiting with him. He tried to petition for King Garon to spare everyone, that his research was worth everything that he did but our King had none of it."

Taking a look at the two bodies once more, Zero closed his good eye and continued. "Supposedly, it took one third of the standing armies sacrifice, almost all of King Garon's personal guard and a good chunk of our assassination squad to take out the Faceless. Though that wasn't the real issue. It was the Faceless that he had made out of his wife. Unlike the others, she was perfected and enhanced with all of his skills and knowledge. Nobody really knows how that battle ended, but Iago wears that mask of his not as a fashion statement. He put it on as a way to cover up what that Doll's beast like hands did to that half of his face. Eventually King Garon won, Relius was beheaded and the Clover's…or rather the remains of them were exiled from the Nobility, their assets taken and all that helped Relius were executed along with him. I knew he had a daughter, but having a son? It must have been done with magic because he is too young. That or she adopted him."

Mark sighed with nothing but contempt showing on his face. "I know Lady Elise truly wanted us to see otherwise…but I now know what the true face of Nohr looks like."

Zero gave a rather wry smile at that response. "I highly doubt that, but she did send me after you two when she realized that you were gone and couldn't have gotten lost getting out but rather you got lost going further in. Come, let's get out of here so I can give Lord Leon my report." He offered.

Corrin shook his head, his expression hidden from how low it was hanging. "Before we do any of that…no matter what their parents did, Ada and Carl here were innocent victims. Zero, I'm normally not one to do this, but I'm ordering you to give these two a proper burial." He demanded with nothing but fire in his voice.

The assassin shrugged. "Whatever you say. Still, it is getting late and you're needed back at the castle before it gets too dark. Once that happens everything changes in ways that needless to say wouldn't be good for that fragile state of mind you're in. Truly, you and Lady Elise are too good for this cesspool. Still, I give you my word that they will be properly buried. I'll even put flowers on them from that place Lady Elise goes to."

With his promise, backhanded as it was, Corrin finally stood up and closed Ada's eyes that were still open with the look of grief stuck on it. Turning around, he lifted his hand as a signal for Mark to follow. "Come Mark. I've had just about enough of this exploration for today. I…I need to rest and to think long and hard about a few things." He said, exhaustion clear in his voice from how raw it sounded.

Mark nodded and gave a side look to Zero. "So Relius was executed, Ada at the very least was exiled along with the staff and other family members. What became of the wife turned Doll?" he asked.

Zero gave a low bark at the question. "That's what everyone wants to know, including myself. Alongside the 'Lonely Bride of the Dead Woods', it is to this day one of the greatest mysteries. Though in my humble opinion…I have a feeling there is a third reason for why Iago wears that mask since it was only after that day that he changed for the worst and his spell duel with Relius Clover made something in him snap."

"That explains a lot. My final question…what happened to the castle?"

Zero chuckled. "I'm surprised you didn't see it. Go to the top of Krakenburg and look North by Northeast. You'll see the remains quickly enough."

Mark gave a hum of acknowledgement. Truly, everything in Nohr had two or more different faces to show them. Shooting a worried look at his charge, he could only hope that Lord Corrin wouldn't begin to wear one himself.

He doubted that the war would ever end should his Lord lose his heart and feelings to the backroom politics and being shown the consequences to them.

 _A/N: That's a wrap! Lots of various cameos from various series across the board! So I will hold a small contest. If you guess all of the cameos that I have placed from Chapter 1 onwards, you reward will be that you can give me one series and I will make that a cameo in a future chapter. Mind you if you choose something like One Piece it'll have to wait till the dock's chapter which is VERY far away depending on which route. So choose wisely! Also, the cameo will NOT have any major impact on story. As you can see, they are there to further plot with conversation and to give some background into theories, like why Iago wears his mask._

 _This was admittedly a very fun chapter to write. Reactions, showing various sides to different characters and Morgan having trouble emoting because of his memories being sealed. Don't worry, he'll open up more soon!_

 _For those that are wondering for what LOOKS like a major OOC moment between Corrin and Felicia. Please remember that they are teenagers, who have known each other most of their lives, with hormones and feelings like everyone else. Ever since Chapter 1 when they were together on the roof, sharing a moment it showed that there was something deeper between them. This just showed that they have sides that they do not show to others too._

 _I also did promise that sex and other alternative forms of love would be shown. Foreplay counts. Mark is seeing his own fair share of lady problems as well._

 _Finally. I do not own Fire Emblem. If I did, I would've stuck to the original translations for this, kept dual audio and given a more stable plot. It is instead owned by Nintendo, Intelligence Systems and all other companies that help make it._

 _Still looking for a Beta, BTW. The one person that tried never got back to me with the other chapters so please, help if you can!_


	5. Chapter 5: Gunther

Fire Emblem Fates: Mark of Destiny

Chapter 4: Gunther

 _"If there was ever a word to describe the grizzled old war veteran named Gunther, it would be: Loyal. The man was military to a T, always following orders big or small no matter the odds or the cost. He inspired several generations of knights to follow the example he set, including Crown Prince Xander. Yet for all of his accomplishments as Gunther the Knight, he himself was a broken man. All for denying the chance to ingest the blood of a Dragon, which would have made him one of the few non-royals able to use Dragon Veins. It was to have been his most defining moment, where a commoner that worked from the bottom came to the top of the military world. He even visited the Rainbow Sage, the only one of non-noble blood to ever do so in the history of both kingdoms. In accepting that gift, he would have to give everything up to serve the royal family but all of his material needs would be fulfilled. He refused, too humble to be awarded for what he thought was efforts that anybody could have placed. He just wanted to spend time in his family, retire quietly and see Nohr prosper._

 _Instead, he watched his village burn, his home put to the torch and his family executed right in front of him on the order of the very same man he fought with, bled with and advised for decades upon decades. Showing that no matter what he did, it was for naught in the face of power. That one night broke him in a way several wars could not. That facing the worst creatures produced by the kingdoms could not. All that was left of Gunther was ashes and a burning desire for revenge. With nothing left to live for, he plunged into battle after battle until the day came that King Garon asked him to look over a little boy._

 _He saw the boy as a method of revenge, raising him in any way he saw fit would enable him to have the perfect agent in place to kill King Garon at his most vulnerable. The moment they were alone, however, he saw the innocence that was in the boy's eyes and he knew that he couldn't go through with his plans. He also knew the truth; that this boy also lost his father to a King Garon that had fallen well into a madness that he spiraled in and out of at a whim. So instead, he kept his hatred of the Nohrian royalty to himself and let it fester. All so the boy wouldn't carry on the cycle of revenge and instead grow up to what a royal should be: Proud, Honorable and Loyal to his beliefs._

 _Gunther was a true hero, through and through. Serving with him was a great honor, no matter how short the time was. His service, dedication and valor is something that shall never be forgotten, no matter the age. I could only wish that the end that we saw was something more fitting for him, in pitched battle, rather than the disgraceful actions of a madman striking him from behind. His death is one that would be avenged._

 _Lord Corrin would never have considered shedding blood in revenge. That was my job to do and my job alone. I will use here the final words that Gunther told me which resonated deeply in my heart to this very day: "Loyalty Unto Death"_

 _-Mark"_

 _Castle Krakenburg: King Garon's Chamber_

 _Night, Same Day as Corrin's exploration into Windmire_

The King's Chambers was said to be the most protected room in all the realm. Guards constantly patrolled the halls day and night, leaving no room for even a mouse to breathe, let alone scurry. Magics of all kinds littered his door, both good and ill for protection and cursing those that entered seeking ill intentions against the King. None could enter without permission. It was his quiet sanctuary against the entire world.

It was why he could lay in his bed and cough violently into his hand, watching as blood flecked against his skin with each raspy heave. His 'illness' as it were was something of his own design. The consequence of a foolish man in love with a wonderful woman that wanted nothing but the best for him and the child she had with another man but he raised as if she was his own daughter. Dark magic, he knew, wasn't the answer. Instead, he poured deeply into the oldest and most forbidden tomes in his castle library and discovered something that had been kept hidden from him. From the world even…and it was his answer to a question that had long burned in his mind from the day he had to lower her body into the family mausoleum.

 _'What curse was placed on her that she would slowly waste away, day in and day out?'_ It was that thought that haunted his every waking step, thought and dreams for years on end. In hindsight, he should have realized such answers should not have been sought out for a good reason when he had to dig so deeply for it.

In doing so, he met with a being of great and terrible power. One that offered sweet honeyed words that dripped with an equal amount of poison. To obtain the power to do that which he could not do himself. Looking back at it, he had realized it was such an open ended way of making a deal that he should have refused on principle. Yet in his grief, he just wanted to do something to see if he could bring back Arete; his sweet, beloved Arete. To do something not even Relius had accomplished and bring back someone with their mind, body and soul intact.

Instead, he both willingly and unwillingly became a vessel to that being. One that slowly eroded his mind and soul with each passing day. It had only been his fury and anger at being tricked that prevented him from breaking and dying at the spot. Garon was not a man to be crossed lightly and had mental fortitude to a degree that surprised even that almost godly being. So instead, they both settled for a battle of wills. He was not stupid, however. He knew that eventually he would lose as he could feel his body rot from the inside out. It had never been a question of 'if' but 'when' he finally gave up his last breath and have his soul ripped out of his body by that… _thing_.

Even now as he looked at a nearby mirror, he could see the black miasma that floated around him and the two soulless red eyes that peered back at him.

 **"G** _ **ar**_ **on. An** _ **o**_ **t** _ **h**_ **er d** _ **a**_ **y an** _ **d**_ _ **an**_ **othe** _ **r**_ _ **bit**_ **of** _ **you**_ **rse** _ **lf**_ **sl** _ **ip**_ **s** _ **a**_ **wa** _ **y**_ **.** " A voice in his head echoed.

"Yes. Though it is another day that I defy your will. Now that I have all of my children gathered, I know that my dream will become complete. Nohr will have its peace. YOU. HAVE. LOST." He growled out.

Rather than banter back, he heard the creature laugh, a long and crazed laugh that belied its true divine nature.

 **"Y** _ **ou F**_ **ool. T** _ **h**_ **e** _ **b**_ **o** _ **y**_ **is** _ **th**_ **e ke** _ **y."**_ It taunted, making his eyes go wide.

"NO. You will NOT harm my children!" he roared, getting out of his bed and staring back at those red eyes with the defiant, proud stand of a king.

" _ **Y**_ **e** _ **s, I**_ **wi** _ **ll n**_ **o** _ **t. Y**_ **ou** _ **will."**_ It easily responded.

"What are you…no! NO! NOOOOOO!" Garon shouted, punching out the mirror but it was too little, too late by then. He fell onto one knee, coughing and hacking out large globs of blood as he felt his vision go dark for a few moments.

"C…Corrin." He muttered as he closed his eyes. A few moments later, he stood. In the broken shards of the mirror that lay on the floor, flecks of red could be seen tinting his eyes and a crooked grin came to his lips.

" **I do believe I will take this body for a few days. You can have it back once I'm done.** " The Possessed Garon said to the mirror shards, in which he could see the real King Garon trapped inside, looking horrified at what he was seeing.

There was nothing he could do to stop it. Not even the power of a king could stop that of a god.

 _Castle Krakenburg_

 _North-Eastern Tower, Highest Floor, Early Morning_

 _Next Day_

Mark looked outside of the window that Zero had indicated to him yesterday. While it was mostly just a speck at this point, he could still make out ruins from a distance. It was a humbling experience in his opinion, seeing how callously life could be treated for a multitude of reasons whether the person was innocent or guilty of these consequences brought to them. It would serve as a good reminder that no matter how good your favor with the King was, to overstep ones boundaries would lead to a mighty downfall.

Looking out in introspective also give him time to think. Ever since they got back to the castle and he forced Lord Corrin to the baths, he had not seen him since. It had been a full day and he was locked inside of his room, refusing to see anyone, even Felicia. The only time he stopped was to request art supplies or to accept food that was offered. At the very least, he knew he could breathe easy, knowing that his Lord was just venting out all of his sorrows and frustrations onto the canvas rather than making a stupid mistake that would come to haunt them down the line.

"Hmmm? Well, well…what have we here? I didn't think anybody else would ever bother coming here."

The voice had spoken up directly behind him and inside of his guard. Mark had quickly turned around and stared into the half-masked visage of Iago, the royal tactician. In all honesty, he still made Mark's skin crawl and feel like he did not deserve the lofty title he had been given…at least at this point in time. He had done his work, looking at Iago's victories and defeats. It seemed like his tactical prowess devolved soon after the battle against Relius Clover. Why it happened, he did not know. The books did not lie though and it showed how someone who was dedicated to tactics of honor and the occasional subterfuge turned into someone intent on throwing away as many lives as possible in each and every battle.

Mark had hazard the injury to his face was much more severe than he let on, which would explain why that gaudy mask was attached to his face all the time. Though he knew Iago was expecting an answer from him now so he cleared his throat slightly before speaking.

"Good Morning, Senior Advisor Iago." He greeted along with a half bow, using the man's highest non-battle title as greetings.

"Yes…so who told you to go here? Was it Leon or maybe Xander? Thinking I've gone mad once again after that horrendous day. Oh….oh, my beautiful face. My wonderful plans…all ruined because of those mindless beasts." Iago half lamented, half ranted.

Mark shook his head. "No. I had overheard some of the butlers and maids saying that it's almost the anniversary of that battle and I asked if there was place where one could see the ruins from here. So they pointed me to here and noted that you tend to come here quite often so it had to be the right place." He lied boldly, not giving away the fact that it was Zero who had said it.

Iago stared at him for a few moments before deciding to ignore his presence and walking to the window. After a minute or two of just staring, he spoke. "You fancy yourself a strategist. Tell me, with little intel on what those Faceless could do and with the entire nation looking on at you for pressure to get the situation resolved quickly…how would you have done that battle differently? I had sent in a small scouting squad of our best assassins, only for them to be tossed back and missing their heads. Then I forwent subtlety for brute force. Using catapults and battering rams to destroy the front, pushing our heaviest units in first with the mounted cavalry behind them. Archer and mages in the back. I warned all of them to not let those beasts touch them. Yet I lost nearly a third of the army regardless."

Mark crossed his arms together as he thought long and hard about it. He could see that Iago had definitely done all the right things and had the units advancing accordingly by all textbook definitions. So was there any way to have made that battle go any differently?

After a few more minutes of silence passing by, he had his answer.

"Iago, I will say this. Everything you did was by the book and against anybody else, I think you would have had a sweeping victory. Though I feel like you ended up losing as many troops as you did because you had assumed they would react just like any other enemy, despite the fact that the enemies you were fighting were, in fact, dead."

Iago let out a snort and nodded in agreement. "Indeed. That was my most fatal mistake. Go on then."

Mark cleared his throat before continuing. "You should have just gone brute force from the beginning. Knock down the entrance and then place your mages up first and have them casting wind or ice spells to negate any traps that would have stood in your way. Fire probably wouldn't have affected the faceless as much, but they can still be frozen or be pushed back like anything else. Once the faceless started charging, have the generals come in and form a shield and spear wall, followed by the archers unleashing a volley of arrows. As castle corridors are extremely limited in how far you can move, I would have not used cavalry but instead had the mercenaries or axe fighters step up in their place."

Iago's eyes widened slightly at the brilliant ploy that was playing out in front of him before frowning and even gritting his teeth together in frustration and anger. _'Dusk Dragon above this boy really IS a genius strategist!'_ he thought to himself bitterly.

Mark saw Iago's temper beginning to flare, so he decided to change up the subject a bit. "Still, that was then and this is now. You've obviously learned from your mistakes and you've gotten stronger since then. I know I certainly would not want to get into a battle of spells with the man that killed Relius Clover."

Stroking the other man's ego seemed to do the trick as Iago began to calm down immensely. "Yes...yes that's right. I'M the one that killed him. I took his personal tome, one of the strongest the realms have ever seen. I finished his research and made Nohr a nation to be feared." He muttered to himself, placing a hand on his mask as if trying to reimagine what had once laid on the other side of it. He also was feeling better in the assurance that even if the little upstart next to him tried anything, his magic prowess would give the boy halt.

Before anything else could go wrong, Mark bowed low, a sign of deference to Iago's rank and began to leave, before he realized that this was the chance to get his question answered.

"Iago…" he began to say before he was cut off.

"Macbeth."

"Pardon?" Mark asked, confused at the name that just came up.

"It's my family name fool. Iago Forsythe Macbeth. I do not give it out lightly. Remember it." Iago continued.

"Ah…thank you. I have one last question before I leave you to the sights. Whatever became of his wife? The first faceless?" Mark asked, blinking slightly at learning Iago's full name as if it actually meant anything.

A small snort was his response. "That thing? We dissected it and put it back together but without Relius, or at the very least, without his spellbook it won't move. Consider it a fail-safe if you will. Only he knew the arcane language to it and she won't move until it's used. I've almost cracked it while the body is in the crypts, held down by the strongest hexes and jinxes imaginable since if anybody comes too close, their head gets separated from their body in fairly short order."

Mark shivered slightly at the thought of such a thing being under all their feet. "I see. Well, Good Morning to you." He said in parting before leaving.

Once he had confirmed that the boy had left, Iago stared at the window. "Good Morning indeed. Once I have that spell, it'll be a morning to remember. Soon…soon, everyone will remember why I was so feared."

 _Castle Krakenburg_

 _Corrin's Room, Late Afternoon_

 _Drip. Drip. Drip._

This noise had been his constant companion for all of last night and well into the day today. The sounds of dripping wet paint, the stroke of a brush against canvas and the frantic need to create. Corrin could admit with ease that his heart was torn in two from that horrible scene last night and he knew what he had to do as soon as he got back. He requisitioned some art supplies and locked himself in his room before going to paint. Never stopping to eat, nor consider his other needs. His concentration was not broken when everyone knocked at his door, worried for him and his behavior. Only Mark and Gunther seemed to understand his focus.

Painting was originally a hobby for him, a form of escapism from the dreary little stones that made up the Northern Fortress. As he painted, he could imagine anything and everything before transitioning it to the form he desired. Be it sketching, sculpting, any form of artistic craftsmanship came surprisingly easy to him ever since his childhood and he never bothered to question why. He was just grateful that he COULD.

At the moment, he just wanted to let all of the negative, festering emotions inside of him out, which was why he was so desperately putting everything together. Already the picture was almost done. A strong, feminine noblewoman with long, flowing blonde hair dressed in a dark purple maidenly outfit, sitting next to a younger male nobleman with the exact same hair color and a pair of corrective lenses adding a bit of character to his face. Both were smiling a small smile that showed contentment.

Zero may have promised to place flowers on their graves, but Corrin wanted to make sure Ada and Carl were remembered as the innocents that they were, rather than the instigator of darkness that their father was.

With one final touch of blue to complete the background of an evening sky, Corrin let out a deep breath and finally let his fatigue, hunger and other needs catch up to him as his adrenaline died down. Looking down at himself, he saw that he at least had the forethought to change out of his clothes from earlier and into some easily forgettable nightwear that could be replaced. He then turned his attention back to his painting, looking at it with a critical eye before nodding with approval.

Just as he planned to fix himself up and see if he couldn't grab some supper since his room was beginning to go pitch black to show the time that had passed by, he heard a knock on his door.

"My Lord, have you calmed down some?" A wizened, older voice asked.

A small smile graced his face before it was replaced with a frown as he remembered Zero's story. "Yes Gunther. In fact I just finished my latest piece. Please come in." he ordered as he went and unlocked his door to let him in.

The knight walked into the room and immediately saw the back of the admittedly large canvas that Corrin was using, which was an indicator of how much frustration he had to release or that his siblings had asked him for a painting of their own. Though in this case since each of them had come to him in turn to ask about his lords' health he knew the former was the truer statement in this.

As he walked over to inspect Corrin's newest creation, he could feel his breath hitch as he saw the subjects of the painting, memories he had thought long forgotten bidding their way to the surface.

It was something Corrin caught onto quickly as he saw Gunther's reaction.

"I see that you know them."

Gunther turned around and saw the look on his Lord's face. It was not a statement that was being made. It was an accusation and one that he had hoped that would never see the light of day again. Sighing slightly at the folly of his younger years, he gave his honest answer.

"Yes. I haven't seen the face of a Clover in over fourteen years. Not since King Garon tried to get them all rounded up for execution. I knew that some had to have gotten away. I just never realized that they were closer to home than expected." The old knight admitted.

Corrin grimaced at those words before letting out a small sigh. "So it was true then. You were part of the force that took their family down."

Gunther nodded. "Indeed I was. I was part of King Garon's royal guard in that fight. The Faceless that Relius had made of his wife demanded no less than the best Nohr had to offer if we wanted to come out alive. Not necessarily in one piece as Iago has no doubt shown, but alive nonetheless."

Corrin would give Gunther the benefit of the doubt for that. It seemed like everyone's story was the same when it came to the mysterious wife of Relius Clover. "What of the children then? Were you one of the ones that demanded their execution?"

The shocked and horrified look on Gunther's face was all the answer he had needed. "Of course not! I begged for leniency on their behalf! The sins of the father should NOT be carried by their children." The veteran practically growled out. _'My family was a victim of that way of thinking and my own foolishness.'_

Corrin could only nod and let another tired sigh escape his lips. "I'm glad to hear that. I ran into two of the survivors last night with Mark. I'm not sure if there was anyone else alive, but it was just his daughter and a son. Both were…not in the best of conditions. By the time we got there, it was too late and the boy died of hunger. The elder sister died of a broken heart and madness soon after."

The look of despair on Gunther's face said far more than any of the words that had been spoken so far. "I so wished for them to be able to leave in peace. For everyone to leave them be and start a second chance. Now they won't even get that. Truly a waste of life and nobody to blame but ourselves and the Hoshidans."

Corrin raised an eyebrow at the last part. "What do the Hoshidans have to do with this?"

Gunther walked over to the nearest chair and sat down on it before motioning his lord to do the same.

"You said that the younger one, Carl had died of starvation, correct? That what you brought was too late for him to take in." he asked as Corrin sat down next to him.

"Yes…it was not a pleasant sight in the slightest I'll admit." Corrin confessed.

"The main question you should be asking yourself then, is how things came that way. You know Nohr has a food shortage. Our lands are not well made for crops that are vitally needed for our survival. Instead we have an abundance of meat, milk, cheeses and little else. We are constantly importing goods at prices unheard of nowadays."

Corrin did remember Elise's leftover food law that she had to pass. "Yes. That's why Father wants to conquer Hoshido so badly right? For their fields?"

Gunther shook his head. "Partially, but not the full story. The thing is, Hoshido definitely has more land than they know what to do with. While you definitely see fat nobles here and there in Nohr, overall most of our citizens are thin, unhealthily so at times. In Hoshido, all of their people consistently waste food. Throwing it out in trash piles and then burning them. They imposing extremely harsh taxes for exports. Their 'tradition' makes them unwilling to listen to even the most desperate of pleas for just land that they have but don't use anyways. So it's not just about food, it's about also getting other nations to join them so they can take away such old laws and the crippling financial straits that they place others in and justify in ways that are, quite frankly, archaic to us."

Both men shook their heads in disgust. If they had the resources, then why couldn't they help? Would it really hurt them to leave several acres of fertile land if they had hundreds, if not thousands more in just their own kingdom, never mind their allied ones as well? Corrin never thought that Hoshidans could be so greedy until that moment.

"That's true. I definitely can't deny that Hoshido had a part to play in their deaths when you put it like that, but Gunther…I'm glad that you tried to help them, even if it was a little bit in making sure that they got away." A large smile appeared on Corrin's face as he said that.

"It is simply my duty to ease any of your burdens, whatever that may be." Gunther responded. "Still, I must warn you to hide this. I don't think King Garon would approve of such a painting."

"Oh of course not! I just wanted to make sure that they were remembered, that was all. I asked Zero to make a grave for them…but it didn't feel like it was enough."

Gunther let out a small chuckle. "Ah…I've felt that feeling before as well. Senseless death tends to do that to everyone at some point or another. Just making us wish that we could have been a little faster, a little better or a little wiser."

Corrin couldn't help but chuckle as well. "Thank you Gunther, truly. You've been one of my closest allies since the day you arrived at the Northern Fortress. If I may be so bold…it almost feels like you are my father at times, rather than my actual father King Garon."

Surprised flittered across the veteran's face before a large smile appeared. "Well, this old soldier doesn't plan on going anywhere soon. If I had a child, I dare say I hope he came out as well as you."

With their much needed talk done, Gunther rose up from his seat and let out a small groan. "Ah, the folly of age. I suggest, my Lord that you take a warm bath and get a bit of soup in you. Nothing too heavy since it might make your stomach sick."

"Thank you Gunther. I will see you again in the morning." Corrin offered as a parting word. He planned to do just that and get a good night's sleep.

 _(Corrin and Gunther have reached support rank A)_

 _Castle Krakenburg_

 _Several Days Later: Royal Dining Hall_

A week had come and gone quickly. More quickly than anyone really imagined. The atmosphere in the dining hall was tense as they all knew that Corrin would be receiving his first real mission as part of the Nohrian Military and receive his grade from their father.

King Garon himself was quiet as he ate a full breakfast of ham, eggs and toast with some marmalade on it. They all knew that he was making them wait on purpose and quickly finished up their meals so that they could hear him speak without interruption.

The very second he finished wiping his mouth clean, Garon narrowed his eyes at Corrin, who visibly gulped at seeing his father look extremely serious.

"Corrin, my son…it is now time for you to prove your worth to Nohr. For this mission only, you'll be the acting commander of a small five person scouting unit. It will include yourself, your retainer, Gunther and your maid. While the final person is a soldier of my choosing that will be observing you and then reporting back to me with how you did. Tactics, ruthlessness if need be, organizing what is available to you…all of these and more are required to thrive on the battlefield." Garon stated.

Corrin immediately rose up and bowed when he received his orders. "Yes father. For the Glory and Honor of our Kingdom!"

King Garon waved his hand carelessly at the kowtowing. "Indeed. This scouting mission will take you to the border at the Bottomless Canyon. There should be an old garrison there that belongs to us. My spies have brought word that it is now active when it shouldn't be. Go there and confirm the report yourself. If it is occupied by Hoshidan forces…then needless to say you are to get it back by ANY means necessary."

Corrin could already see the unheard threat in that statement. If he failed, he was dead or he might as well be dead as King Garon would exile him for his failure…or make an example out of him. Neither of which was something he wanted to do.

"Of course father. May I ask who you've chosen to be my watcher?" he asked.

Garon gave a small snort of laughter at that. "Don't worry, you'll meet him outside. Go, get your things ready. I expect to see you back soon enough…or not at all."

A small bead of sweat ran down Corrin's head at that, but he maintained his composure and kneeled. "Yes, father." He quickly left the dining hall, where Gunther, Mark and Felicia were all waiting for him.

"We've been deployed. Pack enough supplies for two weeks at most. We're doing a scouting mission."

All three of them bowed to their Prince. " **Yes, My Lord!"**

Nothing else needed to be said as they all left for their respective rooms to grab their supplies before stopping by the armory and kitchen to stock up on the essentials of food and weaponry.

 _Castle Krakenburg: Entrance_

 _One Hour Later_

It did not take the four very long to make sure that they were packed and ready to travel at a moderate pace. Gunther was carrying a Silver Lance on his back, a high grade weapon only afforded to veterans like himself. Mark was carrying a Steel Sword and a Thunder Tome, with the weapons Gunther had returned to him safely tucked away in the magic pouch that was securely tucked into a secret pocket woven into his coat. Felicia looked as if she was only carrying a travel pack on her, but everyone knew that she was loaded to the brim with throwing knives in every place she could safely hide them on her person. Corrin himself had Ganglari sheathed at his side with his own travel pack securely attached to his side, his new armor gleaming with the polish placed on it. Each of them save Gunther also had a horse personally chosen by Xander himself. Gunther always had his loyal steed next to him, one of the finest stallions ever produced by Nohr and the child of his original horse when he was part of the Army in his youth.

Seeing them off were Corrin's siblings and their retainers. Each of them wanted to be there to see their companions off as they all knew the first missions tended to be the biggest ones since it was the chance to prove ones worth to not just others, but to themselves as well.

Though all the farewells and good-byes were currently put on hold as Camilla immediately smothered Mark and Corrin between her cleavage and put on fake tears about her ' _baby birds_ ' flying out of the nest far too soon for her liking. Corrin had managed to break free thanks to a timely pull from Elise that nearly bowled both of them over, but the moment he did so, Camilla had doubled her hold on Mark.

Eventually, Xander had to put a stop to the show that they were watching. "Camilla, let the boy go. He's turning blue in the face." He chided. With a small chuckle and no signs of the earlier tears on her face, she let go out of the new retainer, who had wobbled around for a bit before falling flat on his face, much to everybody's laughter and amusement. Elise had to let go of the tight hug she had placed Corrin in to heal Mark once more and make sure he could breathe properly again.

"Well, well. It seems like the brave Mark has a weakness after all. Lady Camilla's bosom." Laslow joked with a chuckle, earning him an elbow to the gut from Selena, who nonetheless had a smile of her own on her face.

"Remember that's my Lady you're talking to." She reminded him.

"Indeed fair comrade! We do not wish for a repeat of what happened when you tried to make a move on her!" Odin practically bellowed into his ear. That caused Laslow to shiver as he remembered exactly what Lady Camilla had said she would do to him if he made such baseless flirtations with her a second time.

While this was happening, Gunther and Felicia were idly chatting with the others. Arthur had given them a new map of the Bottomless Canyon as he had several copies on his person due to always losing the original with his luck. Effie had given them a large basket stuffed with food for the journey.

Zero, on the other hand, was much more serious as he whispered some news into Gunther's ear. Beruka was just idly watching all of this from a lone tree in the distance.

Once Elise gave Mark the clean bill of health, Corrin pulled him up just as Leon and Xander approached them.

"Well, seems like you have the devil's own luck brother. Hopefully this will be an easy in and out for a scouting mission." Leon teased, remembering his own first mission in border patrol.

"I'd like to think so as well, but I heard about who father chose to be your watch. Mark, watch Corrin very carefully." Xander warned, catching all of their attention immediately.

"Who is it that has even you worried?" Corrin couldn't help but ask.

Before anybody could answer, the sound of boots crushing gravel caught their ears and everyone turned around. King Garon himself had come to see them off. By his side was Iago, as usual. It was the third person that brought out reactions from everyone else and the majority were not pleasant in the slightest.

Camilla's face became unreadable as her face was slightly lowered, her hair covering her eyes. Xander was openly scowling and even Zero was being serious, his one eye narrowing at the newcomer with nothing but distrust being shown on his face.

The man was a giant, taller than Corrin and twice as built as well. He was bald but had a small beard. He also had a large lack of clothing save some skin loincloth around the waist and bits of armor going across his body along with boots. The common outfit for a Nohrian Berserker. They were one of, if not some of the worst opponents to go up against. They did not know the meaning of the word 'pain' and pushed through just about everything you could throw at them until a guaranteed kill strike was made. If one was not careful, however, they would end up going out with the berserker as well when the latter was still attempting to kill them with their last breaths. That was how high their inability to feel pain could end up being.

The thing that made Corrin the most uncomfortable about this man, however, was his face. His eyes seemed to be filled with nothing but contempt and greed. It did not feel like he wanted to work with them but rather he was trying to figure out the best way to use everyone around him. The lecherous grin did not help either as he leered at Felicia and Camilla openly, the former opting to hide behind Gunther and the latter continuing to ignore him.

Garon cleared his throat and began to speak. "Corrin and company. This is Hans. He will be the person watching you and reporting back to me when your mission is all over." He announced, introducing the man. "Amongst our berserkers, he is one of the best at his job."

Hans walked over to Corrin and held out his hand. "Good to meet ya, Prince. Don't worry a dang bit. With me by your side, you'll be making them Hoshidans bleed out in no time." He rumbled, his voice deep and booming.

Those words did little to comfort the Prince, rather it made him not trust Hans even more now. He eyed the hand as if it was going to try and swallow him before swallowing his pride and shaking it. If he hadn't been wearing gauntlets, he would have been wincing at how hard Hans was gripping his hand as a test of strength. "…Likewise." Was all he managed to get out before Xander stepped forth.

"Father, I ask that you please reconsider your choice. Hans is a man not to be trusted. I don't even know he is in the army when I was the one that personally arrested him for the heinous crimes that he committed." He pleaded.

The King turned to look at the eldest child and even Xander couldn't help but look down as if he was little more than a boy again with the response given. "Are you questioning my orders?"

"N-no, it's just – "Xander was cut off by a quick swipe of Garon's hand.

"Then we're done here. Hans served his time and underwent a trial by combat to earn his way back into the army. He can be trusted now."

Hans leered at Xander, who was now gripping his hands in absolute fury by the lack of apology on the formers face. "Yes. I learned my lesson, I'm so sorry." Was the insincere response.

"Enough. If you want to keep your timetables then you must leave now." Garon ordered. Though everyone was now uncomfortable and the mood ruined, all obeyed the command and Corrin's party saddled up on their horses.

Mark took one last look back. Laslow, Selena and Odin were all giving small signs of encouragement. Elise and Camilla looked worried and Leon was lost in thought over all the developments. When his eyes locked with Xander, however, he saw a clear hope in them. That he would do his job and protect Corrin with his life, especially now that someone like Hans was with them. So he slowly nodded his head to show that the message was received.

With everything set, the party of five set off to the Bottomless Canyon.

 _Pathway to Bottomless Canyon_

 _Second Night_

A roaring campfire pierced through the darkness that was all around them. Corrin had ordered a double-time ride on the first day to make up for the time that they lost earlier. In truth, he wanted this trip to take as little time as possible. Felicia had gotten into a near death grip on his arm that first day as Hans purposefully rode behind them, leering at her the entire time. She barely slept the first night, opting to take the first watch because of it.

Hans seemed to have gotten the message that his actions were not wanted when Gunther had pulled him aside and had a conversation with him during the watch change and kept looking straight ahead the entire day. Thus, there was much less tension when they made camp for the second night and Corrin quickly fell asleep from the lack of sleep he had making sure Felicia was alright.

With Hans not caring about what went on with them, Gunther had called his fellow servants for a quick meeting.

"I'm sorry if this will take away from your sleep, but I feel this is important due to that…man, who is accompanying us." He started to say, his pause deliberate as he tried to not use extremely colorful language to describe Hans. "I know his type. They're the first to desert when things don't go their way and the first to stab you in the back if it means that he will look better. Greed and lust motivates his every action and he will take sadistic pleasure in doing his job. Normally such men are thrown into suicide missions, but Hans appears to be like a roach. Hard to stomp and quick to scurry."

Mark gave a disgruntled grunt of acknowledgement while Felicia gripped her skirt tightly.

"That is why it's imperative that we make sure Lord Corrin is watched by one of us at all times when we reach the Bottomless Canyon. My old bones are telling me that a fight will be inevitable and we don't know what will happen. We are his vassals. We swore our oath's to protect him from anything and everything, even if it costs us our lives. As a knight, this is what has kept me going for almost my entire life each time I go through the battlefield. War and I go way back, but both of you haven't truly experienced it yet." As Gunther explained what he wanted them to do, Felicia looked down slightly.

He was right in that she did not know what a true battle was like. Not even assassins knew about Lord Corrin so they never had to really fight very hard. The most she fought were bandits alongside the others when they had to go for supply runs at Windmire. Bandits were a far cry from an experienced soldier and she didn't wish to see her secret lover hurt or killed by anyone because she was too scared or powerless to do anything.

"It's ok to be scared. If you were not then I would very much question your state of mind. It is that fear that we might not come back that will allow us to dig deep and push past our limits. Many are surprised at just what someone will do to make sure they stay alive. Though above all, I implore you to never forget your vows. While only Mark is the official retainer Lord Corrin has, since I am retired and Felicia is but a maid, I can safely say that we are all he has. While he would never like to see us hurt or worse, just remember this. Loyalty Unto Death. The motto of the Royal Guard." With his piece said, Gunther stood up.

"Ah, Mark. Before I forget, please come with me for a moment. Felicia, go to sleep. We will be needing you for third watch tonight." He added in as an afterthought. The pinkette gave a distracted nod of her head and headed into Corrin's personal tent. It was big enough for two and they shared it so she could easily wake him up in the mornings with her powers.

Mark followed Gunther to the edge of camp, where a very serious look on his face took hold.

"I want you to watch everything Hans does. If he so much as twitches at our Lord wrong, execute him. King Garon might be mad at his death, but his eyes and ears only extend to us. Dead men tell no tales." Gunther requested, the veteran in him taking over.

Most would be at least a little bit hesitant at being asked to murder someone at a moment's notice, but Gunther knew that when it came down to it, Mark would not hesitate. Hans was arrested for a reason and he was there at his trial. Banditry, theft, rape, pillaging…the list went on and on. The only reason he was spared execution was because he demanded a trial by combat and won through dirty fighting. To have someone like that so close to their Lord was unthinkable to them.

Reaching into his armor, he pulled out a green covered tome and handed it to Mark. "This is an Elwind spell. Able to create a sharp, but more importantly quick blade of wind. Thunder magic is powerful, but it won't be faster than an axe to the back. Elwind, however, will be and it's almost instantaneous in how it reaches someone."

Mark took the book and placed it in one of the several inner straps in his coat made for such a thing. "I understand Sir Gunther." He responded. Corrin would be harmed over his dead and cold body. His honor and loyalty to his Lord and friend demanded nothing less.

Gunther then gave Mark a smile. "While it's only been a short two years, I can say I feel like Nohr might have been a different place if all of our soldiers were as loyal and capable as you."

A slight flush came over the younger man's cheeks at the compliment. "No. I'm nothing special. Lord Corrin is the amazing one. With everything that has happened to him…the isolation and loneliness he has endured…it's a miracle that he came out as he did."

Gunther chuckled at the humble response. "That might have been only possible because you were there for him and picked up the slack that the others might have had." He glibly responded. "You know that those three like to coddle him. Even Flora, though she rarely shows her concern. Only Lilith seems to be detached enough to get him to continue lessons and that's a fifty to fifty chance."

Mark gave a small nod. "Sir Gunther, no matter what happens at that Canyon, I want you to know it was an honor learning under you." He declared and held out his hand.

Gunther stared at the offered hand and its implications, before closing his eyes and smiling. He reached forward with his own and strongly shook it. They were no longer veteran and retainer.

They were now equals in each other's eyes.

 _Mark and Gunther have reached Support Rank A_

 _Bottomless Canyon_

 _Third Day_

 _Noon_

The Bottomless Canyon lived up to its name. Being at the exact border between Nohr and Hoshido, the gaping stretch of land stretched near infinitely with craggy spires going as far as the eye could see. Unnaturally dark storm clouds were always gathered over this area, but never brought forth any rain. The wind howled and moaned but never so hard as to make someone lose their footing. Everything in the Canyon was connected by a vast array of rope bridges and flimsy ones at that. Corrin really did not want to test whether or not these planks could hold up everyone's weight at once.

Save Gunther, everyone left their horses at the edge of the Canyon. They were not bred for situations such as these and the fright was evident when they refused to be anywhere within ten meters of the accursed place.

"I have to wonder if this place truly was the mighty battleground between the Dawn and Dusk Dragon." The Lord said aloud, having read about the Canyon being a cursed place due to the ancient war being Dawn and Dusk culminating between their dragon gods fighting in this exact spot for a week straight. The result was this land where nothing could grow and lightning frequently struck those unaware of their surroundings. It positively reeked of death…and they had to investigate the fort inside of it.

"Regardless if it was or not, my Lord, we have a mission to accomplish and hopefully one that won't end in a fight. Small areas such as these are treacherous to even the most hardened veterans." Mark responded.

Even Gunther couldn't help but nod. "I always hated fighting in this place. It's just so unnatural how this place operates."

Despite the feeling of oppression hounding their every step, the small party quickly crossed over several rope bridges without any incident. The worst that happened was that it creaked and groaned under the weight of Gunther and his horse but they could cross quickly enough that not much stress was placed on them.

Everybody felt more comfortable once their feet touched solid rock. Thankfully they were close enough to the fort that they could observe it and much to Corrin's frustration, there were several lights already lit inside of it.

"We're not alone here." He called out to the others, taking Ganglari out of its sheath. The dark blade shone with an eerie red light at the presence of a prospective battle.

Everybody, even Hans listened when he said that and took out their own weapons. Despite her fear, Felicia kept a steady hand with a knife gripped between her fingers. Mark took out his thunder tome and was slowly charging up a spell. Gunther twirled his lance several times to make sure he got a good feel for where to grip it. Hans had a wickedly sharp steel axe waiting for someone to show up.

It didn't take long for them to meet their enemy as Corrin quickly stepped back. Several shuriken landed where he had been standing just moments before and a Hoshidan Ninja appeared before them in a puff of smoke.

"I am Omozu, leader of this garrison. _Anyan_ soldiers, by crossing the bridge you have formally entered our territory and breaking the treaty between our nations. Fall back now or be destroyed." The ninja declared.

" _Anya?"_ Felicia whispered to Mark, confused at the name.

"Hoshido has their own native language. Anya is their word for Nohr." Mark responded.

"My Lord, as commander the decision falls to you. What will be our course of action?" Gunther asked.

Corrin had to think deeply about this. It wasn't just his life that was on the line anymore. He had to make a decision that would benefit them the most and Nohr as a whole. Father told them to take the garrison back by any means necessary, so if he sent a letter petitioning for some aid it was his hope that the King would send at least a small platoon to reinforce them.

"We have no idea of what we are up against. Our intelligence told us that this place was abandoned. It was bad intel. Let's go back to just outside of the Canyon and regroup. We can send a letter to Father explaining the situation." Corrin finally declared.

"A wise decision, Lord Corrin." Mark agreed with a nod of approval.

Just as it seemed like the tensions were diffused, a new voice cut through them.

"Really? You're just gonna tuck your tail and run? I thought you were a Nohrian Commander? Well forget you!" Hans shouted as he ran forward and took a swing at the ninja.

Omozu saw the attack coming from a mile away and quickly jumped back several times with his shinobi techniques propelling him much further than anyone could normally jump.

"Honorless curs! I knew that you were not to be trusted. ALL MEN, TO ARMS!"

With that declaration, several samurai and archers came out of the fort and began to all run towards Corrin's group with the intent to kill.

"Hans you idiot! I ordered a retreat, not an assault!" Corrin shouted at the berserker.

"Well King Garon ordered the garrison to be taken back by any means necessary. If you're not going to go for glory, then I will!" was the reply given as Hans ran towards the southernmost bridge that connected their rocky outcropping to the fort.

"Gahhh…this isn't what I wanted, but we have no choice. FOR NOHR!" Corrin muttered in frustration before giving out the rallying cry. His companions repeated his shout before positioning themselves for battle.

 **BATTLE START**

 **Corrin (lvl 4 Dark Prince), Felicia (lvl 3 Maid), Gunther (lvl 1 Paladin),**

 **Mark (lvl 20 Tactician), Hans (lvl 2 Berserker) vs. Omozu (lvl 4 Ninja), 2 Samurai (lvl 3 each), 1 Archer (lvl 2)**

It took Mark only a quick glance to see that they were very much at a disadvantage from almost every angle. "Lord Corrin, that southernmost bridge is the only way to the 's blocked by those 2 samurai and the archer behind them. It doesn't help than Hans will likely attack us over them if we try to help him." He informed his Lord.

"Crap. That will make it tricky. There is a bridge to the north but that thicket of trees is too dense for us to cross." Corrin added in with his own observation.

"Is there possibly a Dragon Vein nearby?" Gunther suggested.

"Could you hurry up please?! This archer's aim is getting better!" Felicia shouted at the guys as she jumped back to avoid getting shot at.

"Good point. Gunther, protect Felicia and see if you can't draw the archers attention towards you. Mark, cover me while I search for a Dragon Vein." Corrin ordered.

"YES, MY LORD!" All three shouted.

Felicia quickly climbed onto the back of Gunther's horse before they rode off. As they got closer to where the archer was positioned, the attention was then turned towards them. What the archer did not expect, however, was for Felicia to fight back by throwing a knife, enhanced with her Ice Tribe powers right at him. He had just barely rolled out of the way before firing a retaliation shot, which was avoided due to Gunther's excellent maneuvering of his steed.

With the distraction of the archer and Hans currently locking blades with the Samurai on the bridge and quickly losing ground to them, Corrin placed his hand down on the ground and focused.

 _'Oh mighty Dusk Dragon, guide me to where your energy slumbers.'_ He prayed in his mind as he slowly lost his external senses the more he concentrated on his internal sixth sense.

His prayer was rewarded when his mind's eye caught hold of several wisps of energy passing him by. The wisps slowly became a trickle flow and then a steady stream of energy, all converging to where his hand was.

 _'Focus. Direct the energy. Make a path.'_ Corrin continued to whisper in his mind as flashes of the fort and its general area began to slowly creep into his mental vision. With much care, he slowly forced the energy over to a large cliff that was situated right next to the fort. Then he unleashed it in one giant burst.

Opening his eyes, Corrin could see the Dusk Dragon's energy gathering into a large ball above him and then slamming into the cliff where the rest of the energy was going to. The moment the energy touched rock, the cliff creaked and groaned before it became cleanly separated from the rest of the outcropping. The length of it was just right as it slammed down to where Corrin and Mark were, leaving a perfect new path leading straight to the fortress.

 _Enemy Stronghold_

Omozu could not believe what he was currently seeing. He thought that he had all the cards. He controlled the bridge, the central chokepoint that the _Anyans_ would have to cross. If one soldier fell he could simply call for reinforcements and wear them down.

Then their leader did something that made him bite back several choice curse words. He activated a Dragon Vein, something that was reserved only for the royal family in Nohr and Hoshido, which meant that he was fighting a Prince, but one that he had no information about as he did not match the description of the crown prince or the other prince with divine weapons.

Now he had to worry about a path that led straight to him. With nothing left to lose, he placed his fingers to his lips and gave a sharp whistling noise, the signal for his other reinforcements to join the fray. He was thankful that High Prince Ryoma had the foresight to send these reinforcements a few days back. Hopefully this would be what was needed to put things back on track.

 _Corrin's Forces_

Corrin let out a shaky breath as his body nearly gave out on him, the strain from using the Dragon Vein catching up to him. It felt like he had run an entire lap around Windmire with a general's armor on. Despite the fact that his entire body screamed for him to stay down, he forced himself up and steadied Ganglari in his hands.

"Alright, let's – "He began to order, but before he could finish, a loud and piercing whistle tore through the air.

The whinny of a horse caught the Prince's sensitive ears and he swerved his head left, where he saw three Hoshidan Pegasus knights flying towards them.

"How?! Gunther said that any fliers that try to go through here gets knocked out!" he shouted.

Mark was looking at them as well, more specifically he was looking at the weapons that they were holding. The crackle of thunder and lightning were definitely being heard all around them, but instead of striking down the Pegasus knights it instead just bounced off of their weapons. That's when things clicked in his mind.

"That's a bolt naginata! They're using it as a lightning rod to make sure they don't get hurt!" The tactician shouted in response.

"Oh crap. We have to end this battle and fast!"

 **Reinforcements inbound!**

 **Three Pegasus Knights (lvl 3)**

"GAAAAAHHHH!"

Another scream rang out and Corrin and Mark looked in the opposite direction of the Pegasus Knights, towards the bridge where Hans was fighting off the two samurai there guarding it.

The berserker had a score of wounds on him from the samurai's katana, some deeper than others. Though he wasn't going down easily. The instant one of the blows ended up being too shallow he grabbed hold of the first samurai's head and with little regard to what he was doing, tossed him off the bridge into the endless abyss below. It was that scream which Corrin and Mark had heard.

Though in doing that, he was free to a counter attack from the second samurai and he did not hesitate. Quick as lightning, the swordsman charged forward and thrusted forward, stabbing Hans deep in his gut. This in turn had Hans backhanding the man with the flat of his axe, the distance too close to properly cut anything. Though despite knocking the other samurai back, he fell to his hands and knees, too injured to go forward and settled for crawling back onto solid ground.

Felicia and Gunther were faring only slightly better. Despite being able to outrun the archer, Felicia's aim kept being only a tiny bit off with every movement Gunther's horse made in response. She had wasted at this point all but three of her knives before Gunther had decided that a retreat was in order. They both went back to Corrin and Mark to reformulate a strategy.

"Alright. Hans took out one of the samurai on the bridge but he's too injured to continue. We also have three pegasi riders coming to reinforce this position alongside the other samurai, the archer and the ninja. Anybody have ideas?" Corrin asked, still trying to catch his second wind slightly.

"I do, but it'll be risky." Mark declared.

"Better than nothing. What is it?" Gunther quickly asked

"You, Felicia and I run across this new bridge you made towards the ninja commander. You'll engage him in combat. Felicia, I'll leave you an opening to take out the archer. I'll handle the samurai." Mark explained.

"Wait…then doesn't that mean…" Felicia began to say as she connected the dots.

"Yes. Sir Gunther, you'll have to hold off the reinforcements all by yourself."

"Wait…you said they had magic spears right? Then how will he…" Corrin tiredly asked.

"They know if order to get to us, they'll have to go through him. Gunther is a veteran. He won't let a three to one odd beat him."

Said veteran laughed uproariously at the prospect of such a battle. "It's good to get the old blood pumping again."

Seeing that Corrin was no closer to getting his breath back, Felicia swapped her knife for a heal staff she had hidden for such an occasion and used it on him, getting the soothing magic to make the ache in his muscles vanish and his heart rate calming considerably.

Giving a sigh of relief, Corrin shot a grateful look at Felicia, who blushed slightly.

"I don't like the thought of Gunther being sent all alone. Though right now this is all we have if we want to obtain victory." Mark insisted.

A pained look crossed over Corrin's face for a slight moment but then it was replaced with a grim acceptance.

"So be it. Gunther, keep those pegasi busy. We'll be going for the commander. You will live!" Corrin ordered.

Gunther responded with a salute and rode off to the north, his silver lance somehow gleaming even without any sunlight going across it. "HAVE AT THEE, FOOLS!" he shouted at the riders, gaining their attention.

Taking in a deep breath, the renewed Corrin, Felicia and Mark all ran for their lives across the stone platform. Mark had used his held thunder spell and tossed it at the archer that was trying to feather them and forced him to duck unless he wished to be fried on the spot. It also didn't help that Omozu was throwing shurikens at them either. Felicia had to waste two of her last three knives deflecting them lest they strike them at the knee and possibly make one of the trio temporarily unable to walk or run, leaving them open for a kill shot.

 _Felicia_

The very second they touched the outcropping proper, Felicia showed a fine display of acrobatics as she leaped from stone to stone, gaining access to the cliff first and flipping her final knife into her hand as she rushed for the archer. Said archer scrambled to get a few more arrows off, but Felicia was more than ready this time.

Close combat was the maid's element and she showed it with a very inventive use of her Ice Tribe powers. She froze the ground underneath her and used it to skate and hop around all the arrows that were sent her way in a graceful manner. Unlike when doing her chores, doing something like this was child's play and once she was close enough, she body checked the archer and pushed them both onto the floor.

While she had a rough landing, her plan worked as when she slammed into the archer, she had forced him to drop his bow since he was in mid pull of the bowstring. Scrambling to her feet, the pinkette quickly froze her knife and jammed it into the archer's chest armor. Normally, a combat knife wouldn't be able to penetrate such armor. When combined with Felicia's ice powers, however, the area began to slowly freeze over and chip away into pieces.

The archer tried to push Felicia off, but she had the advantage in leverage and forced him to stay still as his armor finally broke at the point of impact, allowing the knife to finally slip through and cut right into his heart. It was a mercy and instant kill as Felicia also flash froze the area, making his end as painless as possible. With her job done, she bowed slightly in apology before running off to support Corrin.

 _Mark_

The tactician ran to the other side of the southern bridge, where the samurai that Hans had bowled over earlier was finally back up. While he had gotten there too late for a quick kill, the hooded teen was more than ready for a fight with his thunder tome. He quickly charged some electricity into his hand and shot out several weak but swift bolts of electrically enhanced magic at the samurai to check his reaction time. His foe dodged two of them, but the third clipped his waist slightly.

"Blasted _Anyans_! Fight with honor!" The samurai demanded as he continued to try and attack Mark, only to be forced back by several bolts from the thunder tome.

"'Fight with honor' is a phrase for those that aren't confident in their fighting skills against their opponent. You just want to take advantage of close quarters. If you don't think you're going to win, retreat and live to fight another day." Mark shot back, his aim getting better and better with each new bolt that was casted.

The samurai was now seeing red at his honor being sullied by the bastard in front of him. Forgetting the temporary numbness and pain, he pushed himself forward through several bolts, regardless of the damage it was doing to him and attempted a jumping slash in hopes of cleaving Mark in two. At the very least, he wanted to scratch him and show that honor had its place.

Mark himself sighed at the man who decided to throw away his life for 'pride' rather than 'honor'. He knew the difference between the two but most often put pride and honor in the same umbrella term when they were vastly different. Honor meant knowing when to fight and when to retreat. To not hit an enemies back if they chose to retreat. To not kill the defenseless. Pride only meant that someone was mad that they were at a disadvantage in a fight and couldn't stand it.

So when the samurai came to do his desperation slash, Mark's response was simple to switch the tome between his hands, showing the large build-up of energy that had been in his off-hand the entire time. "Don't make the mistake of mixing up 'honor' with 'pride' in your next life." Those were the final words he had for his opponent as he let loose the bolt and struck the man dead-center. He then turned around and also went back to help Corrin, leaving his foe to burn and die alone.

 _Corrin_

Corrin found himself at a stalemate with Omozu. Each time he tried to strike the ninja, he simply dodged or threw a shuriken to force him to roll in a different direction. Conversely, Corrin himself was just as fleet of foot and each time Omozu tried to stab him he just rolled out of the way or deflect it with Ganglari. This 'dance' continued on for several minutes, visibly frustrating both opponents. It was quite obvious that both were not prepared for this fight, especially Omozu who was cursing his lack of forethought since the garrison was usually never bothered by anyone so he did not bring in anything more than a few simple iron shuriken rather than anything more deadly.

They were now just waiting for someone to make a mistake and it was not Corrin, for eventually Omozu ran out of shuriken to throw at him and the moment of surprise when he realized it was all Corrin needed to dash forward and try to slice him open. Before he could the ninja quickly shifted his arms and the two armbraces he wore sprouted out a pair of wicked looking blades that caused the Prince to quickly go on the defensive.

It was in close combat that Corrin's lack of experience against real opponents was showing as Omozu ducked and weaved around his guard and got several hits in, while he himself only managed two glancing blows due to the odd fighting style the ninja employed. He was getting frustrated now and began to swing his blade even faster and wider than before. Though with every strike, even with Ganglari's mystical make, all it would do is slightly chip at Omozu's own as they continued their deadly duel.

Now his opponent was getting confident at his chances of winning and Corrin himself was quickly losing options in how to proceed. All of his knowledge were against foes that were stronger or more technical than he was. Nohrian foes rather than the quick and speedy Hoshidan ones where his speed advantage was all but worthless.

Luckily for the Prince, he was not alone. Felicia had reached him quickly and used her frozen knife to fend off a strike from Omozu that would have rendered his sword arm useless.

"I'm here to help!" she declared before quickly switching to her healing staff and closing up the wounds that had been inflicted on him earlier. Corrin gave her another relieved glance that she was alright before he looked at Omozu. "I'm giving you another chance to surrender. You're outnumbered now! Please stop before more senseless life is lost!"

Those were not the words that his foe wanted to hear as anger was now clear on his face. "If that is what you wanted then you shouldn't have struck first! Even if it's two on one I'm more than enough to kill the both of you." He declared, his intent to kill them clear as he rushed forward. Felicia stopped him by icing the ground underneath them, forcing Omozu to hop back slightly and then go for an attack from the side.

Between the three of them, Corrin and Felicia had formidable teamwork. The maid was much, much faster than their liege and she could cover his back and force Omozu into more unfavorable positions. Corrin would then take advantage of the new openings afforded to him and struck out with Ganglari, finally getting in decent hits that were seriously wounding the ninja now with several gashes going across the chest, arms and hip.

With nothing left to lose, however, Omozu showed just why he was made the commander of the fort. The ninja played dirty after getting hit too many times, grabbing dirt from the ground and throwing it into his foes eyes. "Bastard!" Corrin shouted as he was forced to close his eyes from the cloud that was kicked up.

The ninja wasn't done yet, however. When she attempted to brush the dirt off of her Lords eyes, he kicked Felicia into Corrin and sent them tumbling to the ground and unable to properly get up on time. Using the distraction to his advantage, one of his arm blades sank deep into Felicia's back, making the maid cry out in agony while the other one sank into Corrin's non-sword arm near his elbow. Now both were clutching their respective wounds as the pain diverted their immediate attention away from him.

"This is your end!" The ninja announced as his bloodied blades crossed one another, set on taking them both out at once.

"The only one that is ending is you!"

The shout that he heard was Omozu's only warning and he tumbled over to his side as a large blade of wind cleaved through where he stood just seconds ago.

Mark had now arrived, swapping out his thunder tome for the elwind that Gunther had given him. He also tossed a vulnerary he had on him to Corrin, since Felicia's wound rendered her unable to focus long enough to use her heal staff.

When Omozu looked at his new foe, a pang of fear went through his entire body. He could not see his face through the hood that was covering it, but the aura that was coming off of him screamed one thing.

 _ **DEATH**_

That was the only thing awaiting him if he continued this fight. As much as his mind screamed at him to run, his instinct and the loyal carved into him as a ninja of the royal family of _Byakuya_ had him hold his ground.

"Wounding my Lord is the last mistake you will ever make." Mark stated, holding out his non tome-wielding hand to let a large and howling blade of wind appear on it.

"Hmph. We shall see." Omozu countered as he steadied his blade.

The two stared at each other for several moments, neither one making the first move. They were waiting for a signal that was unseen to the both of them. One that they knew would be coming soon.

 _'SCHLIK!'_

The sound had Omozu blink once, then twice. It sounded so close to him and he suddenly felt…heavy?

Looking down, he saw a wicked looking black blade sticking out of his chest. At his back was Corrin, who had applied the vulnerary onto Felicia and then used Omozu's focused state against Mark against him to run the ninja through with Ganglari.

"Lord…Ryoma…" he muttered before coughing as blood began to flow out of his mouth and wound freely. It was an ungraceful death, but he had fought to the last and he did so while keeping his way of the ninja intact.

The last thing he saw was the pink haired maid walking up to him and with her knife, slicing his throat open so he did not have to suffer anymore.

Once their opponent was assured dead, Corrin let out a sigh of relief. "That…was much harder than I expected it to be." He muttered as Felicia attended to the hole in his non-sword arm with her heal staff.

"You never actually had to train against a Hoshidan ninja before. That quick little duel we had a week ago didn't count. They were desperate and injured. This guy wasn't and he had a small group to back him up as well." Mark pointed out to his exhausted liege.

"That's true. Gunther will probably need some assistance at this point. Felicia, please go heal him." Corrin ordered and the maid bowed slightly, shooting him a worried look before crossing the now safe bridge and heading towards their companion that was still fighting.

 _Gunther_

"It's a crying shame that my age is wearing me down so." Gunther muttered to himself as he twisted the reins on his horse, making the mount go in a full circle turn and using his silver lance to sweep all three pegasi riders away from him. "I would've killed these three ages ago if I had." He quickly ducked under a thrust from a steel lance and backhanded the rider for being too close for him to properly stab.

The riders all heard him as well and they were furious to say the least. Gunther had by himself made them look like fools, being unable to so much as scratch the veteran rider and be held back by him each time one of them tried to escape to help their leader.

To their credit, their teamwork prevented Gunther from being able to take them out individually, though each side knew that it would only be a matter of time until something happened that would break the stalemate and it would not be Gunther as he had far more experience than those three put together.

Eventually, one of the riders had lost their patience. "Enough of this!" a female voice sounded and she broke formation in an attempt to try and slam their steeds together so the other two riders could get at him.

"A poor choice of last words." Gunther said with a small shake of his head. The attack was telegraphed from a mile away and it was easy enough to counter by just making his own horse step a little ways to the left after blocking another attempt of a Hoshidan naginata attempting to run him through from the remaining riders.

Now that he had some breathing space, he broke out of the encirclement and charged at the separated rider. The panic at her failed attack was evident on her face as she tried to make her mount go up faster. It was for naught as he took his silver spear and hurled it forward like a javelin. With a grace all its own, the weapon flew through the air and stuck its foe directly in her chest before lodging itself in her steeds neck, felling rider and master in one blow.

Her companions cried out her name but it was drowned out by the sound of thunder arching overhead. Gunther preferred it that way. He didn't need to add more names to the list of those he had killed.

Forcing his weapon out, he was about to turn back and finish the other two off when Felicia ran towards him. A quick glance behind his head showed that the other two riders retreated. It was a disgusting way to disregard their comrades' sacrifice and he hoped that he wouldn't run into those two again lest he let his full anger out on them.

With his battle done, he met Felicia halfway. "How fairs the battle?" he asked.

Felicia, tired and wounded, but patched up solidly, gave him a smile. "We won! The fort is ours and –"She began to explain before the sound of an explosion reached both of their ears. Looking back at the fort, they saw smoke coming from its direction. "Lord Corrin!" she cried out in alarm.

"Felicia, hop on. I'm sure Mark is already helping Lord Corrin but we must remain calm." Gunther ordered as he held out his hand for the maid to take. The pinkette took in several deep breaths before steeling herself once more and taking the offered hand, smoothly riding behind Gunther as he spurred his horse onward.

 _The Fort_

With their fight over, Mark and Corrin searched the garrison for anything useful. Maps to indicate enemy strength, trade routes…something that could be used for Nohr to get a leg up on their enemy. Sadly, they found none of that aside from an outdated sheet containing orders from a year back.

"Hoshido must be paranoid if they send people here without any intelligence to back them up." Mark noted as he peeked into a crate that had some foodstuffs in it. Unlike their information hunt, there was much better luck finding other supplies like dried meat and preserved fruits. They could take this back to Windmire and it would be able to feed the citizens for at least a few days without worry.

"Well, I read that their ninja only need to be told orders once and they memorize it perfectly so that there is no leak. They would die first before revealing something to their enemy." Corrin mentioned as he combed through the diary of a former soldier that had left the thing behind. He couldn't find anything on there, so he tossed it aside a large pile of books that already had been combed through.

"Hmph. Well, our mission is done. Felicia should be coming back with Gunther any minute now so we should hurry up and leave before more Hoshidan reinforcements arrive." Mark advised and Corrin nodded in agreement.

"Too much blood has been spilled and Hans has been suspiciously absent this whole time. I'll bring up his insubordination with King Garon later." The Dark Prince said with narrowed eyes. He rarely referred to his father by his title unless he was very mad and it took a LOT to make the peaceful prince mad.

Just as they made their way out of the garrison, Corrin had to step back as a shuriken lodged itself in the ground in front of him. "Oh no! We're too late." He cried out as this meant that reinforcements had now arrived in full.

Mark, who was now running up to him in order to protect him better when he saw the shruiken that was lodged into the ground noticed that something was wrong. Unlike the ones Omozu was using against them, this shuriken had a darker sheen to it that seemed to be sparking. Anything that generated sparks after being lodged into the ground meant one thing.

"Get down!" the Tactician shouted, pushing Corrin aside just as the shuriken exploded, knocking both men backwards rear over front. As Corrin was already being moved, he got away with only some minor pain from his back slamming into the garrison wall.

Mark was not nearly as lucky. Having taking the full brunt of the blast, he was blown back much further and both his head and body were knocked against the forts stone walls, sending him for a loop that made him unable to see or hear clearly due to being so close to the blast zone. It was a miracle that he was still able to hold onto his elwind tome, much less remain standing yet he forced himself to as he was the only defense at the moment for Lord Corrin. His hearing was shot, his eyes were watered from the smoke and ash that came from the explosion and his mind was jumbled and felt as if cotton had been stuffed in there. In the back of his mind he knew he had what was probably a serious concussion but he did not let that stop him as their new opponent stepped forward out of the ashes.

Just like Omozu, it was a ninja. Unlike their former opponent, this one WAS prepared for them. His red hair seemed almost like the color of blood and one eye was closed, a long scar going across it speaking volumes of what happened to it. The other eye was firmly set on both of them with a small knife like object in hand.

"Hmph. This is all that Nohr has to offer? I'm disappointed." He spoke, his voice condescending to the two barely standing fighters.

"Mark, are you ok? MARK!" Corrin called out to his friend, but the lack of response worried him as he shook the tactician, who gently brushed him aside as he opened his spellbook and prepared to fight back.

The ninja took this as a hostile response and ran towards them faster than either could blink, but the arrival of Gunther at the last moment prevented him from taking either of the two down as his silver lance was thrusted forward and forced the ninja to either dodge or be impaled.

"Oh my, MARK!" Felicia shouted when she saw the terrible condition that their comrade was in. Though his hood still covered his face it did not hide the blood was that coming out from it, nor the unfocused look in his eye as he seemingly ignored Felicia and kept staring forward at their foe.

"Felicia, get them back!" Gunther called out as he rode his horse forward to take on the ninja, who was ready this time for the veteran. In a display of acrobatics that caused all of their eyes to widen, the ninja had leapt onto the hilt of the lance and jumped off of it, his knife steady in its aim as he attempted to assassinate the maid who was busy trying to pull Mark away from the battle.

Felicia whimpered slightly and closed her eyes, tears coming down as Corrin shouted her name in abject horror. After a few moments of bracing her, the pain never came. Instead she heard a loud 'CLANG!' coming from above her and Mark. Warily opening an eye, she was overjoyed to see a familiar jet black blade blocking the knife and humming with magical enemy.

"You have no shame, going for a wounded foe!" Xander shouted as he blocked the ninja's attack before summoning forth the might of Siegfried. His blade hummed slightly before a blast of ethereal energy blew the ninja away and into the nearby Cliffside.

"Xander!" Corrin shouted as he ran to his eldest brother. "What are you doing here?"

The Crown Prince gave his little brother a kind smile. "Camilla was worried sick and insisted that we followed you apace. So we did, always just out of eye and earsight. As father instructed, we did not interfere with your battle. We saw your victory and you claiming the fort. Though when this ninja attempted his cowardly tricks, we decided that interfering at this point was the better option." He explained.

A large sigh of relief came from Corrin's lips. Though the adrenaline had not faded from his system, he could not stop the weariness that was seeping into his bones from the fight and injuries that were slowly catching up to him.

"Big Brother!" A familiar voice called out. Elise quickly rushed through the dust cloud that had been brought forth by the ninja being smacked into the cliff. The moment she saw Mark and Felicia's states, however, she gasped in shock and rushed over to them with her mend staff in hand and was already beginning to heal them.

Unlike Felicia's regular heal staff that just fixed mostly surface wounds and low key injuries, a mend staff accelerated the healing process twofold and could cure deeper wounds. Though it would not completely fix Mark's concussions, a few minutes under its healing light got him to the point where he could stand under his own power again.

By this point Leon also had reached Corrin and his siblings. "Ah. It seems like you have the devil's own luck. Good job making it this far Corrin. You can leave the rest to us." He complimented, pulling out his Brynhildr to grow some vines as he saw the ninja that had nearly killed their brother making his way out of the hole he was blasted into. Sadly his spell was just a tad too slow, making him click his tongue in disappointment.

He was soon joined by a second ninja, this one causing Corrin's face to blush heavily. It was a woman and she was very…gifted in the chest department. With how light a ninja's cloth clothing seemed to be, it was clear that she rivaled Camilla in beauty, especially with the way her long brown hair complimented her figure for reasons unknown to him.

The two were whispering back and forth to each other before nodding as one and vanishing, but not before several samurai were dropped in front of them from Pegasi riders that had flown above them when they weren't looking.

Samurai that were quickly killed when Camilla swooped down and beheaded both with a single swing from her axe, causing Corrin to widen his eyes in shock at the sheer brutality that his elder sister just committed with not even a grimace on her face. Rather, she was smiling from ear to ear.

"Oh my darling Corrin and precious Mark. You two don't need to worry about anything else. Those vile Hoshidan's will very much regret touching you both and injuring you so." She cooed in that motherly voice that, for the moment, did not sound very motherly at all. In fact, it scared Corrin deeply at just how different she was acting from when they were all at the castle or the Northern Fortress.

"Lord Corrin, we have to retreat. Our job is done, reinforcements from Hoshido are incoming and your siblings can handle themselves." Mark commented as he walked towards Corrin. With a clearer head, he was able to think things through once more.

"Indeed. We will hold them off while you escape. Now go!" Xander ordered while his siblings all got ready for battle. "Our retainers are waiting at the edge of the Canyon to get you to Nohr."

Taking comfort in that his siblings could all handle themselves, the small party gratefully took the opportunity to retreat.

Gunther took point and rushed forward while Felicia stayed behind to cover the rear, the least able to run with her back still mending as it was from her earlier injuries. Mark and Corrin ran as quickly as their legs could take them, but due to his earlier injuries even being healed by Elise, the former had quickly lagged behind the latter.

It was only Gunther and Corrin that had made it to the bridge first that would lead them to freedom. As they crossed, Corrin took the opportunity to catch his breath from all the running he had done. "Are all battles this crazy Gunther?" he wheezed.

The veteran shook his head. "No. Usually they're pretty cut and dry, with each side occasionally able to surprise the other but even then not with such lopsided odds like our little scouting party." He remarked.

"Yeah. Gotta say that was a pathetic sight I saw right there."

The deep voice that cut in made the two swerve their heads to the other end of the bridge where they saw Hans, looking right as rain compared to his earlier injured self.

"Hans! Where the hell were you? We could've used your assistance many times throughout that battle but you ignored everything!" Corrin shouted at the berserker, who was thoroughly ignoring him.

"Following orders runt, but not yours. See, I got a nice promotion waiting back at home if I caused a bit of trouble. Someone has it out for you Princey. Jobs a job though." Hans responded, twirling his axe in hand as he got into a fighting position.

"Like hell you'll harm Lord Corrin!" Gunther shouted as he steered his horse in front of his Prince.

"Oh it ain't just him. In fact, they specifically asked for you first!" Hans shouted with manic glee in his voice as he dug his axe into the bridge itself, rather than the paladin.

"Lord Corrin!" Gunther shouted in alarm, shoving his ward back as Hans pulled his axe out and slammed his foot into the weakened wood, causing the bridge to partially collapse, with Gunther on top of it.

"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"

With that final shout, one of the greatest and most disgraced knights Nohr had produced fell into the abyss that awaited below.

" **GUNTHER!** " Corrin screamed, his heart ripped in two at seeing his oldest and beloved companion suffering so ignoble an end.

"Old man was pissing me off, keeping me from that sweet young thing you three had with you. I think I'll make sure to comfort her once I'm done with you and the other brat." Hans remarked as he ran his tongue over his axe.

Corrin couldn't hear him, his senses far gone and staring at the hole. Then, slowly but surely, the black flames of rage began to quickly fill his heart.

 _ **'Kill…kill…KILL…'**_ A treasonous voice began to whisper in his head. If he had looked down at Ganglari, he would have seen the eye that he had witnessed a week ago open once more before it looked up at him, a dark energy resonating from it and flowing into his body.

 _ **'He killed Gunther...he's never coming back…KILL!'**_ The voice shouted now. Normally, the peace loving Corrin would have never listened and ignored such a violent reaction with all of his being.

At that moment, the peace loving Corrin had fallen into that hole with Gunther and all that was left was a desire to rip Hans limb from limb. Slowly, the Prince rose up as the black energy was now visibly cloaking him.

"W-what the hell?! I was never told about fucking magic!" Hans shouted as he tried to rush Corrin before anything could happen. All he managed to do was take one step before Corrin had vanished and reappeared above him, his face set in a murderous open mouth roar and Ganglari ready to cleave him in two. The berserker had barely held his axe up to block as the full bodied swing knocked him backwards with his guard fully open.

The now possessed Corrin took full advantage of this, but not in the way most expected. Hans was well outside of normal sword range, but Corrin had willed his limb to reach and it responded…by twisting and jerking itself into a pointed edge and stabbing his foe through his gut.

Though this wasn't enough, bringing his two hands together, by the will of the black magic permeating throughout his body, his hands morphed and twisted together to form a mockery of an open jaw of a dangerous creature, which let loose a pure bolt of condensed magical energy at Hans that knocked him even further back.

At this point, the mad berserker was considering running for his life. All the money and titles in the world wasn't worth it if he ended up dead in the process. Another part of him though had raged at how such a little shit could get the better of him like this. Picking up his axe, he was about to make his decision when Corrin suddenly turned back to normal, falling onto his hands and knees and panting as if he had just fallen to the brink of collapse.

This was the opportunity that he was looking for! Ready to cleave the bastard prince in two, he was just about to ready his swing when his body froze up.

 _'Death….death….death…'_ his mind cried out to him. He would die if he went through with his attack. He didn't know why or how, but he just DID.

The hesitation was the only thing that saved him as he saw a large blade of wind magic running towards him and forcing him to roll to the side.

Mark had joined the fray. He had seen everything and it was easy to see that the tactician was very, very angry.

"It is obvious that you do not worship the Dusk Dragon. For if you did you wouldn't have made such foolish mistakes on this day." He began, summoning another blade of wind into his hand.

"You…you think I'm afraid of a little pansy-ass who doesn't show his face. I'll rip you in two!" Hans shouted, his anger now taking full control of him at being called out by someone half his age in such a manner. Ignoring Corrin entirely, he ran towards the tactician with a full body swing that promised to kill a lesser man in seconds.

"Though it is far too late for you, I say this; PICK A GOD AND PRAY!" Mark shouted in rage as he pushed his wind blade against the steel of Hans' axe. Though it should have been a clear cut battle between magic and steel, his weakened state prevented him from just cutting the bastard in front of him in two. Instead, the two attacks pushed against each other for a full minute before the magic exploded, the backlash pushing the two fighters back.

At this point, Corrin was able to catch his breath and held Ganglari in his hand. "Hans, I WILL kill you for this!" he promised as he ran forward and began to swing his blade.

Though as if divine intervention was on the side of evil, his arm seemed to disobey his commands and halted halfway through his swing, much to the confusion of the two fighters. Corrin was visibly trying to move his arm. It was shaking from all the exertion that he was putting forth, but despite all of that it still did not move.

"What kind of evil…" Mark muttered to himself as he saw the devilry at work with his own eyes.

"Heh….haha….hahaha….AHAHAHAHAHA!" Hans chuckled, before it became full blown laughter.

"Seems like 'God' is on my side after all!"

He jumped back from another elwind that was thrown his way when it happened.

As if the sword was being pulled by some invisible forth, Corrin was being dragged away from the fight. More importantly, he was getting close to the end of the bridge.

"Lord Corrin!" Mark shouted, trying to reach out to him to prevent him from falling over. The moment he touched Corrin's skin, however, a blast of black magic came from Ganglari, knocking him to the opposite end of the bridge.

"Mark! MARRRRRKKKK!" Corrin yelled as Ganglari refused to be dropped by his hand and pulled him further than he could hold onto the bridge. His other hand, gripping the rope with an iron grip, was finally ripped away as he was sent into the darkness below.

Seeing his friend being pushed over the edge by his own sword of all things, Mark did not hesitate. He ran to where Corrin had fallen over and jumped, falling as quickly as he could to reach him.

Neither knew how far that they would fall, but as Mark reached out and gripped Corrin's free hand, they knew that they would do so together.

"Loyalty Unto Death…" Mark muttered as everything began to go black.

 _A/N: FINALLY! FINALLY THIS IS FINISHED!_

 _It is also un-beta, again. Seriously, I NEED a beta. I beta for other people, but I am far from perfect. I know my battle scenes are shit and I need better ways of showing how individual battles should go, but I try my best._

 _I'm also sure some of you are asking, 'Why did this take four months?!'_

 _The answer is…work. My job became very time consuming in January. Every other week, for almost 4 out of five work days, I was doing overtime. I already had an hour and a half commute to and from my house to my job to avoid the worst traffic. Add 2 more hours of work on top of that…well it wasn't likely I was going to do much of anything. This continued all the way into March_

 _Then I lost my job early this month. It was no fault of mine, just my office was shut down. So I could finally finish this._

 _It also didn't help that when I did make progress, TWICE, TWICE my computer did not save the progress. I had lost 3,000 words the first time and 5,000 the second._

 _That hurts the soul right there. At least now it's finally finished._

 _Next chapter, is another filler showing what is happening in Hoshido and a bit more of the political climate that is happening there. After all, we still have three Awakening characters we need to show what happened. We already know a bit, but not all!_

 _I also still want to point out there is a poll on my page. Choose the path you wish to take first! Birthright is finally in the lead for once by about 3 votes, so Conquest people don't hesitate to vote, review or PM that you want to go this route!_

 _Next Chapter: Blinding Light_


	6. Chapter 6: Blinded by Light

Fire Emblem: Mark of Destiny

Interlude: Blinded by Light

" _I hate you, I love you; if you don't speak out clearly, you're no different than a doll…"_

 _Byakuya, Castle Shirasagi_

 _Day after Corrin's Battle at Castle Krakenburg_

In the Kingdom of Byakuya, the people were graced everyday with the sight of the sun greeting them with its bountiful light and beautiful backdrop against the sky, vivid shades of purple, orange and blue mixing together in harmony. Most were wide awake, believing that an early start to the day would lead to gains later on, with those being asleep working the endless nights for those that kept their kingdom safe.

Though while everyone rose early, it did not mean that everyone was an early riser. As the sun peeked through one of the many windows, a girl with silver hair tied in twin pigtails groaned as the light hit her face. She threw her pillow at the offending thing, knowing full well that it wouldn't do a thing, but still hoping to get in a few extra minutes of sweet slumber. Sleep that was rudely interrupted when several sharp knocks on her door roused her once more.

"If the castle is not on fire, you'd better have a good reason for waking me up." She muttered as her foot hit something soft that knocked against the wall of her room while she went to the door and poked her head out. Much to her consternation, it was the red haired Pegasus knight Tsubaki, aka 'The Perfect Man'.

Giving the girl a beatific smile that was not returned, he was nonplussed at her glare. "Good Morning, Cynthia. It's time for the morning rounds." He informed her.

"Not for me it isn't. I did that two days ago. It should be Saizo's turn." She grumbled, her glare intensifying with each passing moment.

Tsubaki coughed slightly, his face flushing red at her pointing that out. "Normally, yes. However, a priority message came in and he presented it to the Queen and High Prince Ryouma. They've been in the war room for the past two hours verifying the message."

This caught her attention, causing a single eyebrow to be raised. "If that's the case, why didn't Saizo wake me up earlier? I'm one of Ryouma's retainers. I should be present for that. Kagerou as well."

At this, Tsubaki winced. "Ah…he said that he had tried, only for you to 'be sleeping as deeply as a dragon with a snore to match and ruin all stealth missions'. Please don't kill me." He quoted before raising his hands in quick surrender at the murderous aura that enveloped the girl. "Queen Mikoto insisted you get your sleep and go on patrol in his stead."

Cynthia could feel a vein ready to burst at Saizo's 'message' but reined in her temper and slid her door shut. "Give me ten minutes and meet me at the stables." She ordered.

Even if he was the perfect man, Tsubaki wasn't fool enough to go up against an enraged woman who didn't get enough beauty sleep. "Sure." He quickly agreed before practically running down the hall and towards said stables.

Cynthia listened until the sound of feet shuffling against wood could no longer be heard and sighed before leaning down against the door. Walking over to a small clothes chest, she opened it up and began to change out of her nightgown and into more appropriate clothing.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she began to lose herself in her thoughts as she examined herself. Two years…two years she had been stuck in this kingdom and she only had gained more questions than answers out of it. All that had changed was that her hair was longer, with her twin pigtails going down past her neck, though not as far as Severa's own and her body was becoming curvier, gaining some of her mother's…bountiful assets that she had said would grow in late. It was still nothing on Noire, but that was about the only thing that she could be happy about.

As she continued to change, in the corner of her eye she caught what she had kicked in the reflection of her mirror. Several dolls had been lined up next to her bed and she had kicked one of them, the one with long blue hair, princely clothing and holding a toy sword in its hands. _'Lucina…'_ she thought to herself before her eyes immediately looked away, her hands continuing from muscle memory to put on her armor.

Two years was more than enough time to get a hobby outside of her heroics and she found it in sewing. Each doll represented one of her friends back in Ylisse and each one was painstakingly made by hand with the help of Byakuya's Queen Mikoto and youngest Princess, Sakura. They had taken the time and effort to help her learn when she had started off as clumsy and unable to do anything right. In fact, they had done a lot for her and her friends.

Ever since the battle with those shadows, everything felt…like a waking dream, if she had to compare it to something. One that you know isn't real, but it feels real enough that you can't separate truth from fiction. Her, Brady and Noire had awoken in a garden, with multiple weapons pointed at them and people speaking to them in a language that they didn't understand. They could do nothing but huddle up until a regal looking woman, whom she had later found out was the Queen, had asked in what she thought was Ylissan at the time what they were doing in her personal garden.

They had pleaded their case and several of the people who understood them scoffed and tried to call them insane, but the Queen simply raised her hand and dismissed the troops, much to their amazement and frustration. When it was just them, the Queen had asked them to sit and recount everything that they could last remember. So they did, not leaving out a single detail of what had last happened before waking up in the garden.

Queen Mikoto listened, never once interrupting or looking at them as if they were crazy. In fact, the more she listened to their story the sadder her face became. Once they were done Mikoto said that she believed them and recounted to them a story of her own. The story of a woman who had ran with her husband from a kingdom with their newly born twin babies in tow, their land burning due a Dragon that had once been benevolent instead going mad. Her husband had told them to run as he held off their pursuers and the woman and her newly born children had continued to flee. Sadly, one of her two children didn't make it, unable to take the strain of a curse that had been placed on the three the moment they had left the kingdom.

As much as it pained her to leave one of her babies behind, she gave her child a quick burial before continuing to run. She eventually ended up in Byakuya, where she worked tirelessly to make ends meet for her remaining baby doing whatever odd jobs she could find. Her husband never came for her and she knew in her heart of hearts that he too had passed away. While she worked, she caught the eye of the newly widowed King. A passionate, whirlwind romance ensued between the two and they re-married to each other soon after. The newly crowned Queen, the mother who had lost her home and original husband and one of her two children, was Mikoto herself.

Parts of the story rang all too well with the time displaced children, recounting their own experiences with Grima, who had burned Ylisse and all of the continent of Archanea and Valm to the ground in its mad frenzy to kill all life. Mikoto knew that their story was in a way, similar but dis-similar to her own, which is why she took the risk to believe what they were saying. She welcomed them to stay in Byakuya for as long as they needed, so long as they pulled their own weight.

From there, Mikoto had recalled her servants and pardoned the trio in front of them for doing what only amounted to trespassing on private property. Their appearance was explained as them fleeing Nohr and while they were being pursued, they attempted a desperate and untested teleportation spell in which no control could be made over the destination. Her subjects, more specifically her Royal Guard and her eldest step-son, didn't believe it for a second but they said no more on the subject.

Instead, they let their weapons do the talking for them. In order to prove their worth, Cynthia and her comrades had to show off their weapons and techniques in a contest of skill against opponents chosen by Queen Mikoto's eldest step-son, Ryouma.

Brady had gone first as he was for the most part a non-combatant, focusing instead of healing. He had been set up against the retainer of Ryouma's younger sister Hinoka, a monk named Azama. They were each given a line of patients for whom they would have to treat their illness and give proper advice to help them make sure that they would not get ill again. A simple enough task for any healer, but there was a trick. Each patient down the line was progressively more ill and the actual cause as to why wasn't so easily discerned, even by the most celebrated priests in the Kingdom.

It was then that the Ylissan trio discovered that their own home was leagues ahead of Byakuya in terms of medical treatment, as Brady was able to treat everyone effectively and quickly using all the teachings his mother had drilled into him. Azama, on the other hand, had trouble with some patients that were displaying multiple symptoms to various diseases that he was having issues pinning down to one core area. When it came time to give proper advice, however, Brady had stalled badly due to being unable to speak the local language and had to use an interpreter to get the points across. Azama had a much easier time and eventually beat the Ylissan priest to the punch there, but Mikoto and Ryouma had to give Brady the win as he healed everyone the fastest and most effectively. It was only the language barrier between them that slowed everything down.

Noire was next in line to have her skills challenged. Her test was against arguably the best archer in both Byakuya and Anya in Mikoto's youngest step-son, Takumi. In a field behind the castle, multiple targets were set up at various ranges and both were given enough arrows that they could only get in one shot each. To make things fair, both she and Takumi were given bronze bows, or Yumi as they had been informed was the proper term there. The arrowheads were different than what Noire was used to firing and had to take some time to test the weight and balance of the arrows or else her aiming would be totally off.

This upset the already hot-blooded Prince and he began to shout at her in his home language. They didn't need to know what he was saying to know that he was insulting their friend as they were clearly seeing her cower in fear and the frowns that Mikoto and Ryouma both shot at Takumi. One touch of Tharja's hexed pendant, however, brought out Noire's other half and she tore into the Prince in return, albeit in the Ylissan language, before they settled their score at the range.

It was an interesting duel as neither of them gave a single inch. Each arrow that the two fired hit a bulls-eye each and every time, even as the targets got farther and farther away. All the while smug looks and backtalk was thrown out at each other. Eventually, they reached a target beyond what their bows could normally reach. Takumi did the best that he could but his final arrow was slightly off the mark, hitting the circle under the bulls-eye. When it came to Noire's turn, however, she paused, pulled off her glove, licked her index finger and pointed it into the air. A small nod of her head a few seconds later and she re-attached her glove and took aim at an awkward angle that made Prince Takumi laugh at her.

The arrow that had been launched looked as if it wouldn't reach its target by a good margin. Just as it was reaching the apex of its arc, however, a breeze picked up and carried the arrow further down the path before it hit the target dead-center on the bulls-eye. The prince turned an interesting shade of purple in the face while Noire became her timid self once more and hid behind Brady for protection.

Mikoto and Ryouma lauded the girl for her efforts though, stating that she had done something Takumi hadn't bothered to do ever since he had earned the right to wield his normal weapon, the Fujinkyu, or just Fujin Yumi to most in checking to see what direction the wind was blowing. The Fujin Yumi was unique in that the arrows were made of pure wind energy and could travel in whatever direction the user wished once they gained mastery over it and thus, the normal archery methods that were used began to be forgotten by the Prince until this wake up call.

When Cynthia's turn finally came up, she was paired off against Ryouma himself. He stated that since it seemed like she was the leader or gave off the most leader-like quality of the three, he had wanted to test her mettle himself. Once more, they were given wooden weapons in exchange for their real ones as real weapons could possibly kill them by accident should they be unable to stop or turn away in time from a fatal blow. That wasn't to say that wooden weapons couldn't do the same thing as Cynthia had killed bandits with nothing more than a plain old log at one point when her weapon broke during patrol and she had to improvise, but it did lessen the chances quite a bit.

Their duel became the stuff of legends around new trainees for the entirety of their stay as it lasted several hours, beginning at mid-afternoon and not stopping until the sun had set. Ryouma was extremely skilled, often poking and prodding into Cynthia's guard despite her having an advantage in reach with her lance. Cynthia, on the other hand, was far more experienced in battle and didn't give the High Prince an inch that didn't cost him dearly in being struck somewhere in return. They both lunged, parried, intercepted, struck and essentially beat one another into the ground over and over again with each new exchange of their weapons.

In the end, Mikoto declared it a draw when they were both clearly too exhausted to go on. Cynthia came out of the battle with some bruises on her arms, thighs and ribs as Ryouma consciously tried to avoid her more…private areas. He, on the other hand, had far more discoloration around his face, wrists, legs, stomach and back. From then on, the three had earned the respect of both Queen and High Prince and became retainers to three of the four royal children.

Ryouma took Cynthia herself, wanting to have a new sparring partner and someone that didn't tend to hide in the shadows consistently like his current two often did. The eldest princess, Hinoka, took Noire under her wing as Takumi looked ready to commit murder regardless of the Queen's wishes when they were debating who should go with whom. That left Brady to go with the foul tempered Prince who had been quickly brought to heel when Brady threatened to not heal him until the last second so he could feel each and every injury he got.

From then on, the trio of Ylissans did their due diligence in their jobs. It was more or less the same as what they did with Lucina, protecting their assigned lieges from any threat that they might encounter only without the apocalypse looming over them at any given time. At the same time, whenever any of them had a break they would go looking for any sign of their missing companions and never once giving up hope that they would eventually find them.

Unfortunately for them, as a royal retainer they were also very limited to how far they could travel across Byakuya's borders. Even when they were brought to the neighboring countries on dignitary missions, they weren't allowed to stray too far. So many of the leads and rumors they attempted to chase down were cold, non-existent or completely false but with no way of actually verifying what they were being told. The only place that the three had not searched was Anya and due to the high tensions, crossing into that kingdom with their current positions was the same as starting up the war that had gone cold between the nations once again.

All in all, they were stuck and the more time they spent being unable to do anything, the more frustrated Cynthia became. She didn't hate the Queen or her children or even the country, but this was not where she belonged. The Pegasus Knight wanted to go back to Ylisse, go back to being Lucina's personal guard and at least in her fantasies, getting Morgan to propose to her. The loss of her crush…no, the love of her life was the most depressing thing she had suffered. She had come to terms with her feelings for him a few months into being a retainer and anybody wearing a coat with a hood had made her look over at them before realizing it wasn't the same. He had haunted both her dreams and nightmares as she heard nothing from him.

Was he searching for her too? Was he hurt? Did he…die all alone and afraid? Not even Naga could answer those questions for her. That was why she had eventually gone to Queen Mikoto and Princess Sakura and swallowed her pride before asking to learn how to sew. The very first doll she made was in his image; Coat, goofy smile and all. It was so that she would never forget him, even as it became harder and harder to recall all of the little quirks about him that she had loved so much. She even had to repeat her memories of him every day just to remember what his voice sounded like. She had also made a copies of each of her dolls for her friends as well, even making ones of their parents.

While all of this happened, Cynthia focused back to reality and realized that she had finished putting on her armor and quickly tied up her hair before washing her face and brushing her teeth out of sheer habit. The thought of that only brought a sigh to her lips as she headed down to the stables. It meant that she had been in this kingdom, beautiful as it was, for far too long and she needed to get home soon with hopefully with everyone in tow.

Popping a stuff muscle on her back, she entered the stables where Tsubaki was waiting with both of their Pegasi in tow. Huey gave a soft neigh at seeing his rider and trotted happily as she mounted him.

Tsubaki had no trouble getting on his either, but looked at Cynthia with envy, as he had never seen a rider and their steed synchronize as well as she had. It spoke of a deep seated trust that was leagues above anything else he could think of and it showed whenever they did their rounds. Despite being an older stallion, Huey was leagues ahead of the entire Pegasus Battalion. He could only wish that someday he could get his own to trust him so implicitly.

 _Byakuya Throne Room_

 _Early Morning_

Even though the sun was only just crawling up over the horizon, the illustrious throne room to the royal family of Byakuya was abuzz with energy as messengers were entering and leaving at a frantic pace. A war room table had been set up halfway between the door and the throne and both Queen Mikoto and High Prince Ryouma were reading over the contents of a coded scroll that they had received from Suzukaze, a ninja they had been informed was captured by Nohr less than a week ago and was thought to be dead.

Since he had both survived and escaped from Anya and their infamous dungeon, it meant that the information in the scroll was highly important and was delivered in the swiftest haste. Having read through the scroll, multiple times, the Queen could only cry tears of both joy and sorrow at what she was told.

" _Queen Mikoto,_

 _I am writing to you to inform you of the situation that I and my companion Rinkah have encountered. As you were no doubt told, we were captured by Anyan forces and were taken to the dungeon underneath the castle. There, the others that were with me accepted that our lives were forfeit, but when our jailor came, instead we were fed, bathed and taken to an arena. We were…chosen…to be the opponents to the newly announced Second Prince Corrin to whet his blade with._

 _Queen Mikoto, I beg that you hold onto something as you read this…Second Prince 'Corrin' is our missing Prince Kamui. The resemblance to your facial features is uncanny and he carries your innate kindness inside of him. As we fought against him and a retainer whose identity nobody could seem to figure out, he had me at deaths door. He could have choked me to death if he so desired, but instead he settled for letting me go at the last second._

 _Even when King Garon ordered him to kill me and Rinkah, the only other survivor of the bout, he begged for us to live. With some quick thinking of his mysterious retainer, our lives were spared…even if we were forced to leave with broken limbs to do so._

 _Though sadly this is not all good news. It seems that Prince Kamui doesn't remember who he is. The name was slightly recognized when asked, but he knew nothing else. I know not if it is due to amnesia, the trauma of the incident at Cheve back then suppressing his memories or by some magical means but he really believes himself to be King Garon's child born during the 'Concubine Wars'. Maybe as a replacement to Princess Azura whom we have in captivity._

 _Before we left, the youngest Princess of Anya, Elise, healed our wounds, quite possibly at Prince Kamui's insistence. Otherwise I would not have been able to write this missive._

 _At the time this receives you, we will be at the Bottomless Canyon. We plead for exfiltration. Even if we escape, I highly doubt King Garon will let us get away so easily._

 _Your humble servant,_

 _Suzukaze_

 _P.S. Please tell Saizo I live"_

The news that her true born son was alive sent waves of relief surging through Mikoto. The tears, the heartache and the worries that she had suffered for so many years was now at an end. Her son was alive and well despite the horrors of what happened at Cheve all those years ago. Though the fact that he believed himself to be Garon's son disturbed her on many levels and that he didn't remember who he was, she knew that the Throne of Truth would bring his real memories to the surface.

It had to…she didn't know if she could live through the agony of her own child not remembering his own mother.

Ryouma, on the other hand was far more jovial in the fact that his younger brother was alive. Just like Mikoto, he too had suffered because of the incident at Cheve that had cost him his father, King Sumeragi. He was the one who was supposed to have been there that day. Instead, he had been an obstinate child and played when he wasn't supposed to in the rain and came down with a cold. Kamui had gone in his place and that had been the last time he had seen either of them ever again. So to celebrate the joy of his brother being ok, he pulled his step-mother into a large hug and swung her around before composing himself and apologizing.

This made Mikoto giggle slightly before she looked at the third person at their war table. Dressed in the traditional garb of a Byakuya ninja, a man with red hair, a face mask and one eye shut due to a grievous wound blinding it looked down at the bottom of the message.

"Saizo…he's alive." She told him with a smile.

The ninja looked at her and scoffed. "He shouldn't have gotten captured in the first place. The fact that he only lived due to his opponent's mercy, even more embarrassing."

Mikoto just gave him a warm smile. "Yet…even so, he is alive and will be coming back to you."

Saizo looked away, unable to refute that statement.

The fourth and final person at their table was a much older man, who had stubble growing on his chin and a pair of corrective seeing lenses on his face. Dressed in the garbs of the honored Minister of the Right, the grand strategist Yukimura looked at the map dividing Anya and Byakuya.

"My Queen, with this news, we do have grounds on which we can finally wage war against Anya. In just a few weeks, we could have all of our forces mobilized and sent out so we can hopefully mount a rescue mission as well. Do you feel as if we should do this?" he broached the topic to his liege

At the word 'war', Mikoto's face fell. Even though her son was alive, he didn't know apparently that he was a Prince of Byakuya. He had been fed the lie that he was an Anyan Noble for even longer than she could be a mother to him. So even if she demanded him back, Garon would just laugh at her and have Kamui say those nightmarish words like a nail to her coffin.

That he was not her son and she was not his mother.

Even though her heart ached at the idea of leaving in that horrid place even longer she was a Queen first, then a Mother.

"No. It wouldn't do us any good until Kamui himself admits that he is a Prince of Byakuya. Otherwise Garon can get some of the neutral nations to join him, saying that I've gone insane." She explained.

Yukimura nodded and began to roll up his map before Mikoto placed her hand on his shoulder.

"That does not mean that we can't do something else. After all, Suzukaze and Rinkah asked for help in their retreat and they were worried Garon might send troops to finish the job that Kamui helped to prevent. So I think a small show of force to remind them of what they did might be necessary." Despite her gentle smile still being on her face, behind it was an aura of malice that made all three men step back a bit.

After all, the fires of the Dawn Dragon had nothing on a mother scorned.

The humble strategist nodded at her idea. "I'll prepare some of the troops…" he began to say before Ryouma cut him off.

"Actually, Yukimura, I'll go myself. It's been awhile since I've seen the Canyon and I think having me be there personally will make everyone think twice about trying their luck." The High Prince offered.

The look that the strategist gave him was full of worry, but ultimately he gave up to the whims of his superior.

"Very well, but do take some of the Pegasus Knights that we have with a few of our 'specialized' weapons in that area. I heard that lightning strikes often in there and Raijinto could very well become out of control with all the ambient electricity in the air." He added, to which Ryouma gave a firm nod.

"I won't have to take all three of my personal guard either. I think Saizo would be enough for this, especially since it IS his brother that we are picking up."

Mikoto gave a small nod of her head to seal her approval for their idea and from there, the 'war council' was broken and everyone got back to their daily routine, though now things were beginning to pick up speed since this was a very time sensitive operation that they were doing.

That was when the Queen remembered something. "Oh yes, before I forget. Saizo." She called out to the ninja, who immediately dashed over to her and bowed.

"Yes, my Queen?" he asked, ready to serve.

"As punishment for your little game earlier, you'll have to be the one that deals with Cynthia's wrath when she gets back from morning patrol on what was supposed to be her day off once you return from this mission." Despite being known as a wise Queen, Mikoto, to the rare few, was also known to be quite mischievous, especially to those that earned the right to be toyed with.

The red haired ninja let a small bead of sweat escape his forehead in genuine worry. "…yes, my Queen."

Mikoto giggled at the much less enthused response and waved him off. Once she was alone, she collapsed onto her throne and touched her heart with sorrow clear on her face.

"I may be glad that you're ok, but I can only pray to my fallen husband and child that you'll remember me before my time is gone…" she whispered to herself.

 _Castle Shirasagi Town_

 _Morning_

As the trickle of light from the dawn gave way to the full luster of the morning, so too did all of Byakuya begin to swing into full gear. Merchants set up stalls, food began to be cooked and traders were beginning to haggle their prizes for hard gold.

Every now and again, small patrols of soldiers would pass by, giving a sense of control and comfort to the people. Even those that were clearly out of place, as one hunched over priest and a timid archer stood out amongst their fellows.

"Man, two years and we still got nothin'. Starting to think all we're doing is following ghosts around." Brady grumbled in Ylissan as he and Noire did their own rounds for the day.

"M-m-maybe so, but we can't give up. Morgan is still out there." Noire stated with clear faith in their ability to at least find their leader, if nothing else.

"Hopefully. We didn't kill Grima twice just for him to be pushing up daisies here." Brady pessimistically interjected. He took a few more steps forward before he saw that Noire wasn't following. Looking back, he saw her fingering her talisman necklace.

"…Don't say something like that again. Please." She stated, her eyes hardening slightly as did her voice. While she was still shy and sometimes needed the power of her mother's hexed talisman to speak her mind, being belittled by a belligerent prince for two years had her develop thicker skin and she was more inclined to defend herself.

Brady sighed and rubbed the back of his head. "Yeah, yeah. I swear, you and Cynthia both still got it bad for him and I dunno why. Morgan's a good kid, but he ain't the kind of guy great stories are made from. I'm pretty sure Inigo's still weeping from when you two both rejected him and said you were going after Morgan." He muttered.

Taking in a slightly breath and letting it out, Noire began to walk step in step with her friend again. "B-by the way…" she whispered, her eyes looking to the side.

"Yeah, we got ourselves a follower. Probably Azura, she's taken quite a fancy to us for some reason a few months back." Brady noted quietly, seeing flecks of white at the edge of his vision.

"We haven't done anything to upset her or cause her to be suspicious of us, have we?" Noire asked.

"Nah. We've been pretty careful about our meetings. Poor Cynthia though. She's getting to the end of her rope with that Saizo guy. I'm sure she's ready to run the sorry bastard through with Huey." Brady responded before going back to his regular voice, pretending what they spoke about never happened.

Noire got the picture fairly quickly. "H-he's kind of mean, yeah. All he does is stare at us…a-always. I-I think he e-e-ven followed Cynthia into the ladies room several times until Queen Mikoto told him to stop."

Brady snorted at that mental picture of Cynthia swearing death to Saizo while trying to pull up her underwear and waving a spear at him. "No wonder she hates him. I'd stab a guy too if he didn't give me any privacy in the loo."

By now the two had walked into the heart of the Castle Town. It was hustling and bustling just like they expected it to be and they quickly blended into the local crowd, having had a LOT of practice in doing such a thing. In Brady's own case, having Kellam as a father helped him to erase his presence out of everybody's mind much easier than anyone else.

Noire, on the other hand, had gained her mothers' penchant for stalking and thus was also able to quickly blend into the crowd, following Brady into a nearby alleyway before ducking underneath some boxes that had been stacked up on top of each other. Sure enough, after a moment of two of waiting Princess Azura had quickly ran by, trying to catch up with them and instead going into an empty back alley.

Before she could even think of backtracking, however, the two Ylissans quickly came out of the alleyway and surrounded her with some quick footwork from Noire cutting off Azura's own attempts to get around them.

"Alright. Time for you to answer a question. Why have you been followin' us?" Brady asked bluntly, cutting straight into the heart of the matter.

"I…I…" Azura attempted to come up with something but could only sputter.

"I-it's rude for you to eavesdrop on us." Noire continued, gripping her hands tightly. Considering she had previously seen them break a sturdy bow in half in a fit of anger against Prince Takumi, Azura was now much more nervous.

"Well? We're waitin'?" Brady pressed, tapping his foot impatiently.

"I want you outworlder's gone!" Azura finally managed to get out before slapping her hands over her mouth.

At that declaration, Noire and Brady's eyes met and silently communicated back and forth with nothing more than subtle body language before they both came to a decision by nodding at each other.

"Aside from the rudeness, Princess we want to be gone as much as you want us gone but we need to find our friend first. We don't leave our friends behind." Brady calmly explained.

It didn't do anything to placate the Princess. In fact, she was outright glaring at him now!

"W-why do you need us gone so much now?" Noire asked, trying to change the direction of the conversation.

Taking in a deep breath, Azura slowly lowered her arms. "You're changing things too much, too quickly. You'll ruin so much with your interference."

It wasn't the first time that they had heard talk of this fatalist nature before. In fact, Lucina was the one to put forth that argument when the future children wanted to immediately find their parents. If they came too quickly, their parents might never have fallen in love or married due to their interference or insistence without any facts to cover things up. If they came too late their parents would be dead a second time. For Azura to be speaking like that only showed that bad news would be on the horizon and sooner rather than later.

"I'm assumin' prophecy here? Or some sorta fate bull?" Brady asked.

Azura's only answer was to begin singing. As she did, motes of water from the surrounding area began to cover her. Noire attempted to reach out to her but cried out when a wall of water not only repelled her touch but sent her flying back several feet.

"Noire!" Brady shouted as he ran towards her but the water wall was wide enough that he couldn't do anything until the singing was done. All the water had then spilled onto the ground and Azura was gone.

"Noire! Brady!" A voice shouted at them.

Looking up, the cleric saw Cynthia riding towards them at top speed with Huey.

The moment she came close enough, she pulled Huey up so they landed gently and she all but bounded off her mount towards her fallen friend.

"I saw the water light show and came as quickly as I could! Are you ok? Are we under attack?!" The Pegasus Knight asked, firing off one question after another.

"N-no. We found Azura following us and we wanted to know why. We confronted her and she just said that by us being here we will ruin everything and that us 'outworlders' need to be gone." Noire explained as Brady took out his heal staff to clear up the slight scrapes she had gotten by being knocked to the ground.

"Azura? That's strange, she's supposed to be the nice, quiet one." Cynthia noted with a frown on her face.

"Yeah, well she didn't like us from the moment we got here and it's only gotten worse over the last few months. You notice she doesn't even eat at the Royal Table anymore if we're there?" Brady asked the others.

"Now that you mention it…she doesn't. She's technically a Prisoner of War so she wasn't supposed to be eating at that table by law but Queen Mikoto all but adopted her and she did it for a while at least. So what changed?" Cynthia pondered, recalling the Princesses' odd behavior of late.

"I think us being here fucked up some plan of hers. She all but said she had some sort of prophecy and whatever it included, we weren't supposed to be in it." As Brady said this he finished fixing up Noire and placed his staff away.

"I-I don't like this Cynthia." Noire whimpered.

"Yeah…I don't like this either. Let's get back to the castle, but don't tell anyone what you two did. A lot of them still have animosity towards us and while Azura isn't beloved by the people, she has more sway and word than you two." Cynthia half-said, half-ordered them before getting a nod of agreement from her friends.

Going back to Huey, Cynthia mounted the Pegasus and took off to continue her patrol.

" _Morgan…come back soon. I'm a hero, a follower. The one that goes and hits people that you point at. I'm not a strategist or a tactician like you are. We NEED you."_ She thought to herself. It wasn't long until she was joined by Tsubaki.

"Ah, Cynthia, was there something wrong?" he asked, having seen the light coming from the back alley but sticking to an air perimeter while Cynthia herself went to ground to investigate.

"Just an argument between two talisman users that began to fling spells at one another. I broke it up, told them to cool off and go home." She lied flat out.

"Hm…that's troubling though. We drill proper etiquette into all of our talisman specialists to make sure they don't abuse their power but I guess anger makes you have selective memory. I'll make sure to include that in our report." Tsubaki suggested as they did one last lap around the castle town before heading back to Castle Shirasagi proper.

 _Castle Shirasagi_

 _Mid-Morning_

Going back to the throne room, both Cynthia and Tsubaki noticed that the activity in the normally quiet castle had seemingly skyrocketed in the few hours that they had been gone. Entering the throne room, it was a lot worse with many of the ministers and administrators running around and shouting things at each other which jumbled into a bunch of incoherent background noise.

Queen Mikoto herself looked harried as she signed off on several papers before seeing the two Pegasus riders and ushering them over.

"Mikoto-sama, is everything alright? I've never seen the castle this busy unless we were under siege." Tsubaki asked once they were close enough.

For her part, Queen Mikoto gave them a strained, but gentle smile. "Well we are not under attack, but we had received some…very interesting information and I sent Ryouma and Saizo, along with a few others to verify it as quickly as possible." She explained.

Cynthia blinked several times before realizing something. "Wait, why didn't you summon me back to go with them!" she half-shouted, stomping her foot in frustration at being left out of the loop.

Queen Mikoto placed a hand on Cynthia's shoulder before giving it a firm squeeze, making her freeze in place. "I am sorry, Cynthia. You didn't deserve having your day off ruined like this and being pulled to and fro, but this mission was very time sensitive." She said in a very serious tone of voice, causing the silver haired rider to nod her head slowly.

"It's just…what kind of retainer am I that I can't even guard my charge if he goes off without me?" Cynthia asked in a low voice, being reminded all too well of Lucina sending her to all sorts of places while rushing off to danger by herself.

Hearing this, Mikoto eased her grip and rose from her throne before pulling Cynthia into a motherly hug, earning gasps from everyone in the room. "You're a good person. You follow orders but you also know what your duty is. You know that you have a mission of importance yet you still sacrifice it for our sake, even if it feels forced to you. No matter what, remember this Cynthia: a soldier who follows orders is valuable, a soldier that follows belief will be priceless. You are following your own belief that you will meet your lost friend. Thus, in battle you will be unstoppable. Don't let this little roadblocks stop you."

Cynthia slowly nodded before hugging the Queen back. They stayed like this for several minutes before Mikoto had let her go and sat back down on her throne. "You're dismissed for the rest of the day. Go, eat and take some more well deserved sleep. I will be calling you back soon enough." She ordered.

Cynthia nodded and bowed deeply. "Mikoto-sama." She whispered before turning around and leaving. Hushed whispers filled the air as both Queen and her fellow rider watched her go.

"Tsubaki…your report." Mikoto softly asked and the red haired flier gave a small nod.

 _Cynthia's room_

Nearly kicking the door open, an emotionally spent Cynthia flopped down onto her futon, looking up at the ceiling above her and staring at nothing. It seemed like life really was testing her patience lately, something that she had never been good at, as many of her friends would back up that claim. "What am I doing?" she asked herself.

Blindly reaching out to her side, she gripped one of her handmade dolls and pulled it forward, before blinking as tears began to fill her eyes when she saw it was her Morgan plush. The empty eyes and smile felt so hollow to her already spent spirit and she wanted to be free of all of this. Fighting for a place that wasn't her home, fighting for people that had forced her into servitude lest she lose her life and fighting a way that wasn't hers.

"What would you do?" she asked, bringing up her other hand and tracing a finger over the dolls cheek. It did not answer her, of course and with the ever growing silence she found herself growling before tossing the doll at the ceiling.

A moment of pure terror found its way worming into her soul at how angry and miserable she became, even as her doll suffered no damage and landed right back down onto her stomach.

Everything, everything was just becoming too much for her. Unable to hold her emotions in, she began to let her long held-in tears finally come raining down onto her face.

All while staring at the smiling doll made in the image of her crush, which she now held in a death grip and would not let go of.

"I hate you, I love you…but if I don't ever speak up when I find you, then I'm no different from this doll…." She whispered while sniffling and sobbing almost silently.

Thus did the day pass and another opportunity to be free slipped her by, being slowly blinded by the light around her.

End Chapter

 _A/N: Yeah…I had this chapter like 90% done for the longest time and then I just found myself in a rut. Overstressed from job. Losing said job, being unemployed, finding new job, etc. etc. etc. Lots of life things just completely killing my muse and mood._

 _Only now is it finally coming back. I know this isn't the fanfic you wanted to see updated. I had no idea 'The Show Must Go On' would be as popular as it did. But I also want to stress: PLEASE STOP SENIDNG ME PM'S ASKING WHEN IT IS DONE. BeenJammin, I'm looking at you. The more you ask, the less motivated I feel because I HATE feeling like I need to be rushed on doing something. I warned you about that, TWICE and you STILL keep asking me saying you'll stop if I give you an answer. STOP DOING THAT BECAUSE I DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER MYSELF._

 _I'm getting over some very hard personal issues that have happened over the last two months. I will do what I can, when I can. I will TRY not to leave without updating for another year, but I can't promise that I will._

 _On a side note: Langrisser Mobile. Holy shit this is all I ever wanted Fire Emblem Heroes to be. It's better than it in every way possible. Even better, it actually lets you play the spark notes version of the games main story, starting from Langrisser 2 (aka the main one everybody cares about), which is sort of like a pre-dated Fire Emblem Fates in and of itself. You have the path of light, path of darkness or setting out against both._

 _Is it still gacha? Yes. Is it Waifu Wars? Somewhat. While not as plentiful, the 'armor' is just as colorful for 99% of the female cast. The artist for this game has a cameltoe fetish and it shows._

 _Does it inspire me to do a crossover? HELL YES._

 _Speaking of Gacha: Fate Grand Order. Waifu Wars is literally all that needs to be said about it. Visual Novel is the other thing you can say, but Waifu Wars is the first._

 _Also a great game, but it sucks your wallet dry very quickly._


End file.
